Grace - Worship - Service

I get a weekly email devotional from the Max Lucado website. For those of you who don't know, Max is my favorite author. I believe that I have just about every book he has written (except for the ones I gave away). I pretty much buy his books on blind faith believing that his newest book will be better than his last. Since using this approach I've never been disappointed. If you haven't ever checked out any of Max's writings or teachings, I highly recommend them to you. I don't believe you'll be disappointed. Anyhow, back to the email I received, the devotional was based on Ephesians 2:8,9 which talks about grace vs. works. The jest of the email was basically about how the supreme force in our salvation is God's grace and not our works, talents and strengths. The reminder I got from this email was awesome. The subject of grace vs. works is something I have been thinking about quite a bit over the past few days. Because of my legalistic based background I have to guard against slipping back into a works based mentality. Needless to say, I found the timing of this email to be incredible. I wanted to forward this email to everyone I knew. But I quickly realized that it probably wasn't a good idea, so I tempered myself. I don't want to be known as 'the guy who always forwards stuff to my email'. But this email and the subject of grace and works reminded me of the best lesson on this subject I had ever heard. I didn't hear this 'lesson' in church or during a sermon. I actually heard, overheard is more accurate, this lesson at a restaurant. It really affected me and has helped me more than I could have ever imagined.

A few years back I was working on a project implementing a new computer system at our facility in Newnan, Georgia. As we would normally do, the project team would go out for lunch and discuss the status of the project. When going to lunch we try to choose a restaurant with a menu that has a variety of choices to accommodate everyone's different taste. On this particular day there were about six of us going to lunch so we decided Ruby Tuesday's was the best choice. As we were being seated I noticed that the restaurant wasn't very busy, actually it was dead. Besides our party, there was only one other group in the restaurant. It was a booth with three ladies and about five pre-school aged kids, needless to say they were packed in the booth. As you can imagine the kids were also quite loud.

I didn't pay to much attention to them as we passed by, probably because I was trying to navigate the strollers that sat in front of their booth. We were seated at our table and I sat with my back towards their booth. There was only one empty table between us so I was able to hear the kids and the ladies conversation if I tried. Again, I didn't pay to much attention to them because we had things to talk about. We ordered our food and started discussing the status of the software implementation, in particular the data conversion. Somewhere in the middle of the our conversation I heard one of the ladies behind me increase the volume of her voice, hit the table with her hand and say "I don't think you guys get it! This is not what it's all about!" No one else at my table seemed to notice her and the conversation at our tabled continued. However, I was now intrigued by what she said and began listening to their conversation while trying to seem engaged in ours. Not an easy task for a novice but fortunately for me I have this art mastered. Years of marriage have enabled me to seem like I'm listening to my wife all the while I'm listening to the TV in the background. So being able eavesdrop during a business meeting in an empty restaurant was a piece of cake….or so I thought.

She continued by saying "You guys have got it all wrong! It's not about plans or programs!" Now she really had my attention because I immediately knew what she was referring to (church). I nodded my head in agreement towards my co-workers although at this point I no longer knew where we were in the conversation. My ability to listen to two conversations at once had failed me, she now had my complete attention. I then heard her say "Look you guys, it comes down to this: Grace, Worship, Service". She then started repeating this: "Grace, Worship, Service". She must of repeated this a half a dozen times. Finally she became frustrated with her friends and bluntly said "Let me break it down for you. It's about Grace, Worship, Service. Once you understand and accept God's gift of Grace you are going to want to Worship Him. Once you Worship Him, you'll see who He is and what He's done for you. Once you see who He is and what He's done for you you'll want to Serve Him out of gratitude. It's a natural progression towards Him. It's not about what you can do, there are no plans or programs it's just Grace, Worship, Service". I don't know who was floored more, me or her friends. I was stunned. What she said made so much sense that I just wanted to turn around, hug her neck and tell her thanks. I wanted to tell her that I couldn't believe that I just heard the greatest Sunday School lesson this side of church. But I couldn't.

"So what do you think Ron?" I heard my boss ask. In that split second I thought "If I told you that what I really thought, you'd think I was crazy and fire me!" I kind of tossed out a "Huh…I'm sorry…" My boss continued "I said, what do you think?" I must have had a deer in the headlights look because he threw me a bone by saying "About the data conversion that we've been talking about for the last 10 minutes, what do you think?" Oh yeah, the data conversion….now I remembered why we were here. I quickly gathered my thoughts and proceeded to talk about the data conversion. All the while I was hoping that the ladies at the table behind us would be there when I finished. I wanted to go tell her how much I appreciated what she told her friends. But I wouldn't get the chance, they had finished eating and left before I could get to her table. I never got the chance to speak with the lady I overheard. I never saw her face, I don't even know which of the three ladies it was. She never got to know how much I appreciated what she told her friends and how much I needed to hear it. But someday she will. Someday she'll learn that her words were planted in the heart of someone she wasn't even talking too. Someday she'll learn that her words deeply touched a legalist who had no concept of amazing grace. Someday she'll learn how much she was used by God in a Ruby Tuesday's in Newnan Georgia when she thought no one understood her. Someday I will get to hug her neck and tell her thanks....and she'll be surprised.

And someday I hope I get it like she does: Grace, Worship, Service.