Tuesday, November 15, 2005

The Lowest Place

I jotted this story down over two years ago while working at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs. It was a fresh reminder to me today...

(See Luke 14:7-14)
What I learned today... (June 2, 2003)
I work at Glen Eyrie Conference Center and today, was scheduled to attend a lunch welcoming our collegiate student summer staff. I would be introduced, get a free lunch, and get to know some of the students. But, God had another plan in mind!

Just as I was preparing to leave my desk - my phone rang and it was a frantic co-worker asking me to please jump in and be the tour guide for the tour which was to have started a few minutes before.

I explained about the meeting, but knew in the back of my mind that the right thing would be to just stay and do the tour. I asked other co-workers, and even felt permission to hand the problem off to someone else. So, I did. And, went off to the meeting.

Before they got ready for our group to be introduced, they discovered the tour was still not taken care of...and they came up with no other option than for me to go back and do the tour.

On my drive back I was crabby, grumbling, complaining and just unpleasant in general. I knew I would be faced with a group of people who were waiting and wondering and maybe even upset. Their tour was to have started almost 30 minutes ago and while they did watch a short video, they still had to wait.

I was also quick to point out to myself that this was one reason I hadn't wanted to be trained to do these tours. And all the way over, I just laid my yucky attitude before God and said, "Lord, I don't want to give this tour and I have a rotten attitude about it."

But, I knew in my heart these people deserved a great tour - the best I could give. I quoted to myself, "Whatever you do - do it all for the glory of God." And, when I was nearly there - the phrase was like a lightning bolt..."Choose the lowest place." A powerful reminder of a passage God had really placed on my heart just a few days ago.

I got to the tour, the people were spectacular and so friendly - we had a delightful time together seeing the beauty of the place. I was indeed blessed by being in their presence. What a God-thing!

But then as I thought more about the passage in Luke - I realized I had few things backwards.

I knew it would be the right thing to go ahead and choose the lowest place and do the tour. In my mind, I set the honorable place on what would bring me glory - being introduced and recognized. But, since I chose the place of "higher" honor - God allowed me to be humbled by having to be told to go back and to the tour instead of choosing it.

Imagine how much more I would have glorified Him if I had just chosen the lower place first.

Later in the day, thoughts would creep in of wondering if anyone realized what I'd felt like I had sacrificed. If they's realized I missed lunch and hadn't brought anything because I was planning something different.

But the still small Voice kept saying, "Take the lowest place". And I knew, again, that it was a discipline of the mind that needed to rule over these thoughts.

So, today while many ate pizza, and others saw God's beauty at Glen Eyrie for the first time - I was on the Potter's Wheel being shaped and re-shaped into the woman God wants me to be! Hallelujah

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