Me (funny)
A couple of years ago, I was in the Orlando IKEA store shopping with my good friend Jerrod Brooks. We were looking for some inexpensive chairs for the Church at the Mall Student Ministry area. As we began to leave, I told him that I needed to use the restroom before we got back in the car and made our journey back to good ole Lakeland, Florida. We approached the bathrooms and I asked Jerrod to sit outside and wait as I used the facilities. I walked towards the restrooms and noticed that IKEA had a Men's Restroom, a Ladies Restroom, and also a Family Restroom.
For those of you who know me well, I am a little OCD about public restrooms. I am the guy sitting in the Airport Restroom with his fingers in his ears while humming a song and shutting my eyes...pretending that I am somewhere else... ANYWHERE else. With that being said, the sight of a Family Restroom... a completely private facility with no noise, no people, no distractions, and no germs seemed like an amazing and extremely appealing idea. I walked up to the door and realized it was... unlocked. JACKPOT!!!!
I walked in to the Family Restroom... locked the door and spent several moments looking around. This was the first "earth friendly" restroom I had seen so I paid close attention to the "pull up to flush" or "pull down to flush" buttons. I enjoyed giving those a try. I checked a little email and I basically made Jerrod sit outside and wait while I experienced the bliss of my own private oasis in the midst of a crowded and loud IKEA store. I walked out the door with a big grin on my face. As I walked up to Jerrod, he was shaking his head with a large grin on his face as he told me the story of what he had just seen.
He informed me that after I left that a woman with four kids walked up and checked the Family Restroom door and found it to be locked. They waited and waited (I was checking email you know) and finally the woman's kids could not wait any longer. She sent her two younger sons into the Men's Restroom. One of them was crying because he did not want to go to the restroom alone. She assured him that he would be fine and that she would be waiting right outside. She then turned her attention to her two daughters. One of them was in diapers and needed to be changed. She asked the older daughter if she could hurry up in the restroom, return quickly so that the mother could go change the baby's diapers and then hopefully return before her two sons noticed she was not standing right outside the door as promised.
I believe the words Jerrod used were "Dude, you created a lot of chaos going into that Family Restroom." Although we were both laughing about the experience, I also realized that I had made this mother's trip to IKEA a nightmare. I also realized that I was given an extreme blessing.
Through Jerrod's eyes, I was able to see the actual consequences of my "me first" decision.
We rarely get to see this picture. The picture of the actual consequences of our actions. We don't get to hear the stories of those who were "put out" as we made sure we were "put in". I am convinced that if we could see the entire picture play out each and every time we choose "me first", that we might begin to understand God's call to serve and not be served, we might begin to lean toward loving our neighbors as our self,we might start seeking the Kingdom of God first,we might start dying to self daily, and we might begin giving more and worrying less about what we get in return. When we choose to put others first....something special happens....not only in their lives but in our lives as well. We begin to see the entire picture play out and we begin to not only understand the message of Christ, we begin to BECOME the message. Somehow, I think that is what He intended all along.
May we truly seek to end our "me first" attitudes. May we begin to live the John 3:30 principle. More of Christ and less of me. May we attempt to see the consequences of all our actions, and may we allow the reality of what we see change who we are, how we live, and even where we go to the restroom.
How can I stand up before God
and show proper respect to the high God?
Should I bring an armload of offerings
topped off with yearling calves?
Would God be impressed with thousands of rams,
with buckets and barrels of olive oil?
Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child,
my precious baby, to cancel my sin?
But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.
Attention! God calls out to the city!
If you know what's good for you, you'll listen.
So listen, all of you!
This is serious business.
Micah 6:6-9 (The Message)