HarleyDad Leans a Lesson

You learn a lot of things doing service station work.

You are on your knees a lot as you repeatedly check tire pressure. In that way, I guess, service stations and churches are the same-you are on your knees a lot. You wonder if you will ever make enough money not to work in the service station and have a nice car yourself. You meet people from all walks of life. Many of the customers of the service station are not there long enough to make a lasting impression--but sometimes you meet an individual who does.

One day an tall old man in his 80's was walking down the road. That day it was hot, hot like it can only be in New Orleans in August. It was about 105 degrees and at that standard 95% humidity level. The old man stopped in the service station to cool off. I chatted with him since business was slow.

I asked him where he had come from and whether he had any car problems. He said: "No, he had gotten off a bus about a mile and one half up the road and was going to the old folks home about another mile from the service station." He said he liked to visit the old people there and give them apples and sure enough he had a picnic basket of apples with him. He said his visits were appreciated by the residents of the home and he did this every Wednesday. So after spending a little time chatting, he left the station to walk to the "home" and then after his visit walked another two and one half miles back to the bus station and caught the bus back to his home.

I have thought about this for a long time. The impression made on me was lasting.

Here was a guy in his 80's who did not think of himself as an old man. He was just a guy visiting some old people and bringing a little happiness into their lives.

It is all about perspective. It is all about God and people. It is all about living heroic lives.

Do we see ourselves as handicapped, do we see ourselves as unable to work, do we see ourselves as feeble and old. What is our perspective. What is our self-image? Do we see ourselves as people that can not achieve. Are we interested in how God sees us?

THIS GUY SAW HIMSELF AS A MAN HELPING OLD PEOPLE. Heck, most of the people he was visiting were younger than himself. And he walked five miles in order to visit them.

Well life is about choices. We choose each day. As Joshua said: "Choose this day who you will follow, but as for me and my house, we will follow the Lord."

We choose. It is your choice how you see yourself. It is your choice about how you live your life.

We suffer from our bad choices-but we are not bound to them unless we want to be.

I choose to be like the guy walking down the road to visit the old people.

HarleyDad