Blog Yellek

On Sunday morning, as is my habit, I went for an extended walk to spend some time in prayer before church. On the way back I met a man coming the other way. Seeing that he had in his hand some tracts about creation I supposed that he was out telling people about Christianity and as he approached me we struck up a conversation.

“If you died tonight do you know where you would end?” up he asked.
“In Heaven, I’m a Christian” I said.
“Do you speak in tounges?”
“Yes”
“Have you been baptised by immersion?”
“No” I said, “but I have discussed this with my pastor and I am in submission to my leadership”

There was more in this vein and after a little while I became quite affronted that no matter what I said that nothing was good enough. Here I was, a committed Christian for many years, heavily involved in my local church and it was like I had to justify my faith to his standards before it was good enough. It was like he had predetermined that everyone he met was in need of his brand of salvation whether or not the person knew God or not.

After a little while God started showing me something about what was going on. This man was using his tests of faith to keep his distance from people. As long as others could be held up to a higher standard than they could possibly meet then there was no need to form relationship or be vulnerable. Whilst God was showing me this He showed me also that despite all of that the spirit in me was in kinship to the spirit that was in the other person because it was the Holy Spirit inside of us.

As I left to walk back home to get ready for choir he said to me “Why do you think we ended up meeting this morning?” and as I walked away I thought about that. The first thing I learned as a result of this encounter was that no matter what we disagree about as Christians there is a unity that goes beyond all that we disagree about if only we can find it. The second thing that I pondered was to wonder how often I judge people in a legalistic sense and how it must feel to them to have me put them through the hoops that I feel a proper Christian should go through. I would hope that I am more sensitive to people than the person I met but just the same I know that I need to be concentrating more on the relationship than the rules.

Interesting.

Last week I was asked if I wanted to help serve food for a Women’s event the following Friday and, after a bit of prompting, I said yes. I’m not sure what I was expecting but the thought did go through my mind that it couldn’t hurt my reputation . Having lived briefly in the same house with someone who had worked in the restaurant business I guess I should have had a better idea of what to expect. I expected to work hard but maybe not quite as hard as I ended up doing last night.

So a bit before 7 last night I rocked up to join a rather mixed crew of other guys who had agreed to help out dressed in the required black pants and white shirt. After a bit of waiting around we started pouring drinks and then putting food on plates and delivering it to tables. That bit wasn’t so bad, sure we were working at speed to get everything out there but the physical labor wasn’t too bad. It was only after the clean up started that I realised the full extent of what lay in store.

The sheer number of trips it takes to get stuff off the tables and into the kitchen for a large function is staggering, especially when you don’t know all of the little tricks you can use to carry more at a time. Then there was the food that was left over, health regulations preclude saving any of it for later, but I couldn’t help regret the sheer quantity of deliciously prepared food that went into the garbage. I have a distinct memory of spending what seemed like an hour unscrewing white plastic caps off half empty plastic water bottles, emptying the contents and putting them into plastic garbage bags for collection.

After that, with all the tables empty we started rearranging the furniture to turn the space we were using back into a church foyer, we thought we had nearly finished. It was only then that we discovered that there were 90 fairly heavy chairs that had to be lugged back up the stairs into the PCOM room. Some of the guys had left by this stage and so we set to work getting them up the stairs 3 or 4 at a time till that was done. Finally at around 11:50pm I dragged myself off to my car and drove home.

You may be wondering what the point to this story is. You see even though I was the last guy to leave I was definitely not the last person to leave. There must have been at least 10 women there when I left finishing up cycling plates through the dishwasher and doing other things. Most of them had probably been there all day setting up and getting things ready and there they were still working hard at the death as one by one the men left to get some rest. To be fair most of us working had already put in a full day at work including the guy who had been doing the dishes who had come from his factory job but I can’t help but be humbled by the level of effort and commitment displayed by the women still there.

The real eye opener was the identity of the people there at the end: Ps Jane Evans, one of the 2 senior pastors, Ps Elisa Colak and Carol Kerrigan, leader of the women’s ministry. These women hold some of the highest positions in the church and yet there they were, late at night, looking after the dishes. Having had little direct contact with these women around the church, I cannot but help be profoundly impressed by their level of dedication, commitment and humility. In every way I pray that God blesses them the way they so richly deserve.