THERE WAS a cab driver who
drove as a mission for God. He would pick up people from all walks of life, and
he would rely greatly on the Spirit to inspire him to do one thing that would
distinguish him from the rest of the cab drivers in his large city. His
favourite customers were those who were down on fortune, the elderly, widows
and widowers, the poor – even those who he knew couldn’t afford the fare.
He would treat them all
kindly, and his kindness was always based in believing each person he met was a
good person; his mission was to ‘make good people better’, by making them feel better – about life, about
themselves, about the world they lived in.
Sometimes people needed a
chat. So he would spend the time listening. Other times, when he could tell
them looking intently at the meter, he would say at the end of the ride –
“You’re my tenth passenger this shift – that means you’ve ridden for free! God
bless you.” Some would query him, (“Are you sure?”) whilst others would simply
just thank him. Sometimes he could tell the person needed encouragement – he
would find out something about them they were passionate about and then he
would encourage them around that.
Every time he was able to
bless a passenger he received from God an abundance of reward: to know that it
was he
and not an abusive, unfriendly or uncommunicative cab driver that God had
chosen for this particular passenger. That gave him a great deal of delight.
The cab driver loved his
job because he had the freedom to work for God. He didn’t work for some cab
company – he worked for the Lord himself.
***
And so it is for us. We can
choose to work for a master or for The Master.
When we imagine the
profound impact that can be made in a 5-minute interaction of kindness, and we
know we’re doing God’s bidding, we are filled with the blessings of having
known: God appointed us for their blessing.
They weren’t abused by
somebody else. They weren’t lonely in another person’s company. They weren’t
treated unfairly. They were treated with grace.
This is our everyday
opportunity: to give the person we see our full, creative selves, so as to give
them a gift they couldn’t have expected. We’re blessed to be a blessing and how
wonderful it is that the other person interacted with us and not some
abuser, unfriendly, or scheming type.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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