Monday's Musings

Significance

{Scripture Readings: 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, Ephesians 2:10}

His name is David.  Each morning he dresses in one of two pairs of pants, both varying shades of khaki.  He dons his company shirt and heads out the door by 7:30, thermal mug of coffee in one hand, loose work orders in the other.  David enjoys his technical work as a copy machine repairman.  He finds the solidarity and predictability of his job comforting.  Xerox, Cannon, Toshiba?  For David, there’s no difference.  All industrial copiers are the same.  Doors snap gently into place.  Gears grip one another at predictable rates and the glass has measured increments.  Problems inevitably arise but every problem has a solution.  When he gingerly opens each door, cautiously turns each gear.  When he silently crouches by the exit tray, tenderly rubs a finger along each roller.  When he is patient.  This is when he finds the solution.

 Today David’s first stop is a small, but growing company in the field of Financial Services.  PaymentsPlus++ provides payment processing services to local restaurants and retailers.  The company owns only two copiers, both Xerox.  Both previously owned.  Both heavily used.  This is not David’s first visit but he walks in unnoticed, his cushioned shoes silent on the tile floor.  He bothers no one with questions or concerns.  As he crouches in his repair he notices their shiny leather shoes tap and shuffle impatiently.  Yet he continues on, undisturbed by their inconvenience.  He finishes in record time, pats the lid of the copier, and heads toward the exit.  He walks slowly, wiping grease off his hands with the rag from his pocket.  David notices their shiny suits.  Hears their noisy heels.  Feels their anxious deadlines.  As he opens the EXIT door he turns to see a long line forming at the newly repaired copier.  Job well done.

One day David did not show for work.  His soft soled shoes and quiet demeanor were at a hospital on the other side of town, next to his wife and their new baby girl.  Unfortunately on the day of his absence both copiers at Payments Plus++ went kaput.  A substitute repairman was sent from David’s company but he sweated profusely, dropped tools, and worked painfully slow.  So slow in fact, that Jill from Sales was unable to make copies for her meeting with three potential restaurant clients.  Richard from Marketing needed copies of their new ad campaign by 11:00.  One look at the repairman and his heart sank.  Accounting needed multiple copies of the month’s expense reports.  Where was the usual repairman?  What was his name again?  Why was this new guy taking so long and why did he look so petrified?

For you see when David went missing, (the David no one ever seemed to notice before) everyone suddenly understood his value.  His skills, his talents, his demeanor; previously unnoticed, were now prized in his absence.  No one fixed a copier in the same way David did. 

I wonder who you relate to in this story.  Are you a David?  Someone whose spiritual gifts and talents may seem ordinary upon first inspection (1 Corinthians 12:22-23) but are actually of great importance.  Or are you clothed in a shiny suit of gifts?  Gifts that thrust you into the limelight.  Prestigious gifts that never go unnoticed.  Whether you are a David or a shiny suit, know that you are of great significance in the work of the church.  God specifically designed you and placed you in His church for a purpose.  Just as the office was less effective without David, so the church would suffer without your gifts.  Every one of us, both the Davids and the shiny suits, has a specific work to do (Ephesians 2:10) in reaching our goal of glorifying the name of Christ.  Yet it is the Davids that feel invisible at times.  Today let’s listen for their soft soled presence.  Let’s acknowledge them for they are of great worth in His eyes (1 Corinthians 12:22).