I first noticed a bag of carrots covered in ice crystals in the vegetable bin of our refrigerator. I tried to ignore the refrigerator's obvious malfunction, hoping that somehow it was just a temporary glitch.
But within a few days, well, now the shredded cheese in an adjacent bin was also hard as a rock. We tried our usual fix-it method: Turn the appliance off and start it up again. No change.
I called the local repair shop, and a few days later, the technician Tim arrived. He did what the faithful do. He sized up the problem and got to work. But there was something different here. This did not seem like just another repair job for him. He seemed to have a joy in doing the work, not having to do it but getting to do it. As it turns out, he has been repairing refrigerators since 1988. Just helping others in time of desperation.
He took out all the shelves and drawers. He worked on his hands and knees for almost three hours. From time to time, I could hear chunks of ice shattering. But he stuck with it, found the problem, and replaced the broken part.
In our culture, we talk a lot about calling. Tim's calling was not to repair refrigerators -- although he was really good at it -- but called to serve and help others in their time of need.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4. 16
May we be so mindful. Not just aware of a problem, but also not ignoring what is before us. Doing something about it, not out of obligation, or not to earn someone's favor, or to be the hero, but out of the sheer joy of helping when we can and how we can. We may not be able to do everything, but we can do something. And first, to pray. Sometimes serving is just being there, being faithful to the work, and having a happy heart. That kind of faithfulness is never without a witness for the God we love.
Images of the saints of old were recognized by what they held in their hands. What do we hold in ours? Tools in our toolbox to serve others. When a friend's 18-year-old car needed replacing, she chose a small pickup truck, because it gave her delight in being able to serve others even more. The faithful to Jesus have always been marked not just by carrying a towel and basin (John 13. 4-5), but willingly using them, even in unrecognized ways.
The faithful stuff is never insignificant. Faithfulness to what God has placed before us changes the world, even if it is fixing one refrigerator at a time. During Covid, the media identified these quiet servants as "essential workers." In her lifetime, my mom always acknowledged the mostly invisible battalions around her. I can still hear her saying to the stock boy at the grocery or the women cleaning the bathrooms at a restaurant, "Thank you for your work." She let them know she saw them and recognized their profound work. The faithful are watchful and attentive.
"We cannot ascertain what is valuable in God’s sight, nor what He can redeem," writes British author and pastor Rico Tice.
The faithful put down their heads and just do it. Because they have an inner joy, far deeper than the task at hand. Would you do this for Me?
It may not be anything that others see, but knowing God is using it profoundly, beyond our understanding, out of sight, on the far side of words. That's what faithfulness looks like.
God uses the most unlikely among us to accomplish the most unexpected. We can never know the reverberations of a needful act of grace. There are no small kindnesses. The awareness to be kind builds one layer upon another.
One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much... Luke 16. 10
That is what I witnessed in my kitchen. One who took delight in faithful work.
May we all leave that imprint.
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