What I’m about to share with you is a true story. You can’t make this stuff up sometimes. Last fall I went out to a friends place in the country to target shoot some guns. Now I know that some of you may not approve of this activity and I understand. The point of the story is not the shooting, but where this took place.
We drove to the back of his forty acre farm on a wet fall day. Halfway up the small hill, my truck was throwing major amounts of mud all over the place. My truck was only 3 months old at the time with less than 5000 miles so you can probably understand that I wanted it to look nice. Coming back down the hill after our little afternoon excursion added even more mud to the already caked on stuff from a few hours before. I am sure that there was eight inches or more of mud in the wheel wells when we finished.
Driving down the road threw off some of the mud especially from the tires but the wheel wells were not really cleaning up. As we drove home my kids asked if we were going to wash the truck. “Of course” I said, as we drove along; “I go to this drive through car wash all the time, in fact I have a special card.” When we drove up to the entry of the car wash we all jokingly noted a car in front of us that didn’t look like it even needed to be washed. An old lady was driving this car that looked as if it hardly ever left the garage. We laughed about the irony of her car and my truck in line at the car wash.
We didn’t realize that we wouldn’t be laughing long. The manager took one look at my truck and came over and said: “I’m sorry sir, but we can’t wash your truck, it’s too dirty.” He said we needed to go and pre-wash it somewhere and bring it back and then he could wash it.
I responded, “Why would I come back if I had to wash it somewhere else?” He became defensive and told me I didn’t need to take such an attitude. My daughter then said, “Dad, there’s a sermon in this story.”
There sure is! I wondered how many people have left a church, any church in any town of any denomination, and were told in various ways they were too dirty to attend and that if they got cleaned up, they could come back and worship with them. Maybe someone commented to them about their dress and adornment? Maybe someone mentioned something about their children’s behavior? Maybe something was said about food brought to potluck? Maybe nothing was mentioned at all and that sent a message?
Body language is louder than anything we say. In fact studies show that body language is 80% of our communication. This can happen with our eyes, our posture or facial expressions. If we think it, it shows somewhere in our body language.
Have you ever done a check on your dirt limitations of your church? Ever done one on your self?
We drove to the back of his forty acre farm on a wet fall day. Halfway up the small hill, my truck was throwing major amounts of mud all over the place. My truck was only 3 months old at the time with less than 5000 miles so you can probably understand that I wanted it to look nice. Coming back down the hill after our little afternoon excursion added even more mud to the already caked on stuff from a few hours before. I am sure that there was eight inches or more of mud in the wheel wells when we finished.
Driving down the road threw off some of the mud especially from the tires but the wheel wells were not really cleaning up. As we drove home my kids asked if we were going to wash the truck. “Of course” I said, as we drove along; “I go to this drive through car wash all the time, in fact I have a special card.” When we drove up to the entry of the car wash we all jokingly noted a car in front of us that didn’t look like it even needed to be washed. An old lady was driving this car that looked as if it hardly ever left the garage. We laughed about the irony of her car and my truck in line at the car wash.
We didn’t realize that we wouldn’t be laughing long. The manager took one look at my truck and came over and said: “I’m sorry sir, but we can’t wash your truck, it’s too dirty.” He said we needed to go and pre-wash it somewhere and bring it back and then he could wash it.
I responded, “Why would I come back if I had to wash it somewhere else?” He became defensive and told me I didn’t need to take such an attitude. My daughter then said, “Dad, there’s a sermon in this story.”
There sure is! I wondered how many people have left a church, any church in any town of any denomination, and were told in various ways they were too dirty to attend and that if they got cleaned up, they could come back and worship with them. Maybe someone commented to them about their dress and adornment? Maybe someone mentioned something about their children’s behavior? Maybe something was said about food brought to potluck? Maybe nothing was mentioned at all and that sent a message?
Body language is louder than anything we say. In fact studies show that body language is 80% of our communication. This can happen with our eyes, our posture or facial expressions. If we think it, it shows somewhere in our body language.
Have you ever done a check on your dirt limitations of your church? Ever done one on your self?
1 comment:
So this is a new truck?
Great illustration!!!
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