Yesterday we were able to go out to an incredible Mother’s Day lunch. However, like I wrote yesterday, we were not short on conversation. By the end of the meal, we were the last table left in our section and all of us, including our waiter Albert, were still trading stories. The entire meal, it was obvious Albert was trying to keep track of several things in his mind, and while that was written all over his face, his personality was still able to shine through. I’m sure Mother’s Day is anything but a slow day, but it was clear that Albert was trying his best to multitask. Within the first greeting, we found out he was on the uphill of a double shift and he was looking at a very long day.
Despite the hustle and demands of all the tables, Albert was able to keep up with our table. Of course we’re the type that could spend three hours at a restaurant without even noticing, so I guess he got a little grace with us. As the tables started clearing out, we got more and more time with Albert until he finally just made his permanent place at our table because we were the only ones left. Throughout the entire meal, Albert was able to share pieces of himself and his story, but it wasn’t until everyone else was gone that we were able to get more of the story.
I found Albert to be almost a kindred spirit of sorts. While our upbringings were far from similar, we seem to be headed down a slightly similar path. He’s a navy brat and has spent all of his young life hopping from base to base and country to country. Now that he’s into his adult life, the travel bug hasn’t left him – once you get it, I don’t think you can ever shake it – but his motives for travel have changed drastically. As he recounted some of the tourist stuff he has been able to do from hiking volcanoes to sailing, he knew that life wasn’t about all the treasures to be hunted, but there was something more to do with his life. In a couple of years, he’ll finish up his schooling and will launch straight into the Peace Corps.
You can never really know someone’s motives for heading into something like the Peace Corps, but to put your career on hold to pursue helping other people can’t be bad. Sure, I never want anyone to hear me put too much of a stress on good works and say that’s what gets you into heaven. However, if I’m just being honest, I feel like the modern church has just swung the other way. We diminish good works now because we know that to get to heaven we just have to come through Jesus and we pursue this “personal discipleship journey” that really is just personal. The only problem with that is in James when he says, “…faith without works is dead,” and the other part when Jesus tells the disciples the whole “feeding me when I was hungry and clothing me when I was naked” thing.
Good works won’t get you into heaven. But they should still be the outpouring of our lives when we give our hearts and lives to God. In Tuscaloosa, everyone has turned into a missionary due to this storm and it has been incredible to watch the churches lead the charge in this arena. My prayer is that WHEN all this is cleaned up, the churches won’t just exit stage right, but they’ll realize there’s still a ton of need in our community and keep pouring out even when all is said and done. It’s never easy when your hometown is turned into a disaster relief mission field, but it is an eye opener for the local church. Let’s just pray those eyes stay wide open.
One thing Albert said at the close of our conversation came in response to my mom’s compliment on his personality. He said, “Well ma’am, God has given some pretty good gifts and I’ve spent a long time running from them, not wanting to abuse them. Now I know I can use them.” I don’t know why, but that stuck with me. We don’t have to feel bad about using our gifts when we figure out what they are. That’s why we have them…
