When you think about it isn’t it amazing how we can take each other for granted in spite of thinking well of each other? We can communicate our admiration to those we are close to or are high profiled but there are so many more that we need to recognize and honour.
This week, let’s consider reaching out to three people that we don’t normally openly acknowledge and make a point of encouraging and honouring them. It can be the janitor, co-worker, neighbour, store clerk, health care provider, your spouse, an elderly person, the lady who makes coffee on Sunday mornings at church, first responder, a young child, waitress, distant relative — the list goes on and on. Let’s get out of our comfort zone and reach out.
As an example, I had a unique opportunity to honour a servant I had not even met. One morning I received a phone call requesting me to be a speaker at an upcoming annual Christian conference to be held in Abbotsford. I eventually agreed to the request and about a month later I received the official brochure and laid it aside. One day my wife Sandra noticed the brochure and that one of the other speakers was Cecil Glover, who had been the speaker at a Full Gospel Business Men’s banquet in Fort St. John where she had given her life to the Lord many years before. That really caught my attention and although Sandra could not join me at the conference, I agreed to introduce myself to him.
I was speaking in the morning session and felt led of the Lord to relate the salvation conversion story to honour those like Cecil who had been so faithful in spreading the “Good News”, even though I had not yet met him personally at the conference.
Before I commenced my formal speech I started with, “What would we do if there was one soul hungry for the Lord and there was one speaker who had the right message for the hungry soul but lived hundreds of miles away and was totally unaware of the hungry soul but was a faithful servant of the Lord. This speaker was committed to serving the Lord even though he had no idea of the hungry soul waiting to hear his message, even though it would disrupt his family and their weekend by travelling to this hungry soul town”.
I then shared the need to honour those faithful servants of the Lord and to personalize it I shared that the hungry soul I was speaking of eventually became my wife, and the speaker at that banquet was Cecil Glover, who was in attendance with his wife Marlene at the conference. I then asked Cecil and his wife to come forth to be recognized.
The attendees erupted in applause as the couple came forward and shared their incredible story from years before. They shared the difficulties they had in attending this particular banquet, with cancelled flights due to weather, unexpected motor vehicle problems, and arriving at the banquet five minutes before it started, and they were burned out.
I was of course unaware of the challenges that they had faced that day but deeply touched by their faithfulness to the Lord as they persevered and saw not only my wife’s soul saved but also many others that night. I attempted to honour them and the other faithful servants at the conference by praying over them and blessing them in the name of the Lord.
As it turns out, two years ago Cecil was honoured by the Lord, I am sure with these words “Well done thy good and faithful: servant.”
Let me take this opportunity to honour and encourage you in your faithfulness in walking in obedience to the tasks the Lord has given you. He wants His children to honour one another. That is the heart of our Lord. Be honoured today.
John Grady lives and writes in Fort St. John.
