Excellence Unto the Lord

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
Colossians 3:23

I didn’t really know Tim when I first met him, but I could tell pretty quickly that there was something different about him.

He was curious. A deep thinker. A writer. Someone with tremendous compassion. We were in a Bible study together, and I eventually learned that his twins were in school with my son.

A couple of weeks into the study, a question came up, and Tim looked at me and said something like, “I just want to know—how did you leave what you were doing in the business world and just stay here and serve?”

That question told me something about Tim.

He was searching.

As I got to know him, I learned more of his story. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota and went on to have what the world would certainly call an incredibly successful career. I believe he was somewhere around employee number sixteen at a company that would eventually become one of the largest global companies in the world.

Over the years, we had many conversations. Eventually, I invited him to join a Bible study at the Del Mar train station that I have been a part of for nearly 28 years.

Tim became such an important voice in that group.

He contemplated things deeply. He asked questions. He wanted to know what the Scriptures actually said, how the rest of us understood them, and most importantly, how they should affect the way we live.

I also watched Tim live out his faith.

I watched the compassion he showed as his father was passing away. I listened to him talk about conversations with his mom back in Minnesota. I watched the way he loved his wife and his children.

But eventually, after many years in the corporate world, another question began to emerge.

What’s next?

Tim is a gifted writer and had already begun sharing his faith through LinkedIn with many of the people he had come to know throughout his business career.

But recently, he found himself wondering what else God might have for him.

He asked our senior pastor about some ways he might serve. A couple of possibilities were mentioned, but they weren’t necessarily things that fit his expertise.

And then something nudged him.

Tim had an upholstery cleaner.

He looked around the sanctuary at church and thought:

I could clean the chairs.

Not preach from the stage.

Not lead a ministry.

Not start a new program.

Clean the chairs.

Every one of them.

And so he started.

Row after row.

He figured out how long each row took. He worked carefully. When someone from the church walked into the sanctuary, he would stop and have a conversation. Then he would go back to work.

And he did it with excellence.

Unto the Lord.

Jesus said,

“For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:45

Think about that.

The King of Kings came to serve.

Jesus washed feet.

He touched lepers.

He fed hungry people.

He stopped for people others walked past.

The kingdom of God has always looked different from the kingdom of this world.

The world often asks, “How important is the position?”

Jesus asks, “Are you willing to serve?”

Tim recently sent me a picture from the sanctuary.

It wasn’t a picture of him.

It wasn’t a picture celebrating what he had accomplished.

It was a picture of a bucket of dirty water.

That water represented years of people sitting in those chairs. Dirt, spills, stains and whatever else an upholstery cleaner can pull out of a church chair.

He even sent me a little note reminding me that apparently my chair seemed to be especially dirty.

Thanks, Tim.

But as I looked at that bucket, I couldn’t help but think there was something beautiful about it.

A bucket of dirty water can become an offering to God.

“Not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.”
Philippians 2:4

Sometimes we reach seasons in life when something begins stirring inside of us.

What now, Lord?

Where do You want me?

How can I help?

What do I have to offer?

Maybe the answer isn’t nearly as complicated as we make it.

Maybe it’s visiting someone at a senior center.

Maybe it’s serving at the San Diego Rescue Mission.

Maybe it’s packing a few lunches, putting them in your car, and when you see someone who is homeless, handing them a meal and reminding them that God loves them, God sees them, and they haven’t been forgotten.

Maybe it’s calling someone who’s lonely.

Maybe it’s helping a neighbor.

Maybe it’s washing dishes.

Maybe it’s cleaning chairs.

Jesus said,

“Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
Matthew 25:40

There may be things God puts in front of us that seem ordinary.

Small.

Unnoticed.

Maybe even beneath what we think our abilities or experiences have prepared us to do.

But there is nothing ordinary about something offered wholeheartedly to God.

Tim took an upholstery cleaner, went into the sanctuary, and started cleaning chairs.

And Sunday morning, I sat in one of those chairs.

I could see the difference.

But more importantly, I knew why it was different.

Someone had served.

No stage.

No spotlight.

Just a man, an upholstery cleaner, a bucket of dirty water, and a willingness to do something with excellence unto the Lord.

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
Colossians 3:23

Maybe that’s the question for each of us today.

What’s our bucket?

What simple thing has God already placed in our hands?

And are we willing to use it for Him?

Excellence unto the Lord.