I have worked at my current job for about five and a half years. They have a program that feeds the needy Monday through Friday, and I realized early on that trying to heat up my lunch in the kitchen during their serving time was next to impossible. It was inconvenient for me and for them. So I purchased a small microwave to keep in my office. For a long time, the microwave resided on a table next to the fax machine in a corner of my office. And almost no one mentioned it being there. Over the years, I’ve also taken in a small toaster oven and a mini fridge that someone at work was going to throw away. And really no one said much of anything about it. Then a few months ago, the office building was re-carpeted. We moved everything around and in moving things back I changed the location of the table with the microwave from the corner of the room to being immediately behind my desk in the back center of the room and changed out the fax machine for the toaster oven. It was amazing how many people then commented on “Deidre’s kitchen.” I’m not talking about a couple of people… almost everyone who came into my office noticed what had already been there for years!
A few months later, I needed to bring in a rather large piece of office equipment and it fit best on the table that had been the home of my microwave and toaster oven. So I moved them again off to the side in another place in the corner of the room. The comments about my “kitchen” have stopped. It is amazing to me how many people only see what is front and center. Their peripheral vision doesn’t pick up obvious details even considering how often they have been in my office. Similarly, I wonder how people see me as a Christian. Our guest pastor’s message today, made me think about what picture of God, if any, I’m sharing with those around me. I’ve had days, many recently I’m ashamed to say, where I’ve prayed to God for forgiveness and not even 15 minutes later I fall into the same sin. I know Proverbs 15:1, “a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” I read it again this afternoon and thought “yes that’s absolutely true… why can’t my tongue figure that out?!” I find myself agreeing with things that I seem unable to practice. What picture of God am I showing? And this is not just about people I see at work, what about my church family, my parents, my husband? If their peripheral vision is only as good as the people who come into my office, all they are going to see are my sins and not how much I love God and them.
We talked today about Daniel and how upright he was so that no sin was evident by his outward actions or words. Daniel was only that good because he leaned on the Lord constantly. Maybe I should follow his example and pray specifically and purposefully three times a day! Are my attitudes, ideas, and conversation I share with others honorable to God? When you speak with someone, especially one on one, you have their attention! They are staring at the microwave that is front and center in the room, and they ignore what is off to the sides. Friends if we don’t put Jesus front and center, I fear we will miss sharing His truth and love with others. I need to remember that whatever I say to another person I need to be willing to say the same standing in front of the throne of God. Is my complaint about something that happened, or even a complaint about a person, worthy of me bringing it before God? Is the gossip I heard worth repeating? Are my aches and pains worth mentioning? “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Whatever you bring to the front and center of your life that is what people will remember. I ask that you pray for me and for each other for God to train our minds and our tongues to be in accordance with His will and His mission! Let us build up and not tear down! “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).