Be In The World

I wrote a devotion recently about all the people involved in setting my Google pod alarm to go off at 2:30 a.m. The gist of the devotion was that, when you break down your life, even for a brief period, it depends on the efforts of many people behind the scenes. I implied we are never apart from each other.

Yesterday, a cousin of mine in Kentucky posted an article about a potential catastrophic collapse of the oil production and processing industry due to the struggle of getting oil through the Strait of Hormuz. The article suggested that both Iran’s oil production industry and the processing facilities that depend on the flow of oil through the Strait were in danger of economic collapse due to oil restrictions. All you have to do is remember how many mom-and-pop restaurants closed when COVID caused us to shut down “non-essential” travel in 2020. This process is similar. An industry makes itself dependent on a certain number of resources flowing to it and when those are reduced, it either has to cut expenses, use retained earnings, or go out of business due to the reduction in what it can sell down the supply chain.

That got me thinking about these verses:

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” - John 17:6-23 ESV

 This morning, I had to call a customer service representative to update my payment information for a publication. About a month or so ago, our credit card number was compromised, and we got a new card. That meant each vendor we had embedded that payment info into had to be changed. I went online for this publication and changed the number, I thought. A couple of weeks later, I got an email notice the card on file didn’t work. Again, I went online and thought I got it updated. This happened a third time. The fourth time it happened, I broke down and called their customer service number.

I know the people who work on the front lines of a customer service area are limited in what they can do and even say. I gave the guy our new number and he said it came back denied. We tried again and it was declined. He suggested I call our credit card company to find out why. I replied that my wife, while I was talking to him, went online and the card showed that it was fine. He again suggested calling them. I suggested he have his IT team look into it. He resisted. I offered to let them send me a paper bill so I could pay by check. He relented and said he would get their IT team to investigate it. I successfully used that credit card for a purchase an hour later.

I didn’t have the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus with him. However, I did converse with him calmly and respectfully, without letting my emotions get the better of me. In other words, I was trying to be a light in the world for Jesus.

I’ve been in situations where the other party was trying to rip me a new one and I calmly reacted.  I’ve watched the frustration and bewilderment on their faces as they failed at pushing my buttons (at least visibly). I know there is power in being the calm participant in an interaction. I prayed the other person would later reflect on our interaction and try to understand how I could have remained calm in it. I hope it encourages that other person to find out what gives me the peace and joy that allows me not to be swept away with my emotional response. I believe these small, daily interactions are just as important in our calling to be a light in the world as sharing the word of God directly.

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:18-20

Be a light.