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Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
by Tom Kelley
Last night my wife and I spent zero time together once we got back from eating supper out. My wife had a couple of cakes to bake and she had to watch them closely. Was she baking for family members or close friends of the family? No. She was baking for a guy at work. My wife is employed by Jack Burford Chevrolet in Richmond, Kentucky. She is in her sixth year with them. A few years back she baked a cake for a fellow employee as just a special thing for what was, I believe, an important birthday. It caught on.
Now she has a list of the birthdays of all the employees with Jack Burford. The evening before their birthday she bakes them a cake and then she takes it to work with her the next day. She always takes care to make sure that the person whose birthday is being celebrated gets a piece of the cake. Believe me, once you taste one of my wife's cakes you grab a piece quickly. If not, the cake could be gone and the person being honored by it might never get a piece. So she takes care of the birthday girl or boy first.
This is where her heart is truly seen. She never takes a dime for the cakes. She does it because she wants to. The neat thing is that she also takes orders on the cakes. The birthday person tells her their favorite cake and she bakes it for them. Today's honoree is the Service Manager. His favorite? Red velvet cake. It's a popular cake with the employees. The cake will go in the service area and the extra one will go in the sales area. Becky does this just because she wants to. Thing is, now it is expected. That's the bugaboo about things, isn't it? Raised expectations.
Think back to when you first became a Christian. How did you react to your new life? Were you exuberant? Did you tell everybody you knew about your newfound friend, Jesus? How about now? The rush may be over. The exhilaration of being "saved" may have subsided. You may have settled into being just a church member and gotten swept up in the press of activities. Perhaps you teach a Sunday School class or Junior Church. Maybe you're the president of the women's fellowship or the church treasurer. You're involved and busy and even satisfied. Here's the grinding question. When we get settled into Christianity that way do we disappoint the expectations of the one who saved us?
"Then (Jesus) said to them, 'Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentence and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.' " Luke 24:46-48 "And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Acts 1:8 Jesus saved us for a reason; so we could tell others. Those others are outside the church buildings walls. Many of them are just a yard from the gates of hell. It's time to bake our cake and take it to work with us, and to play, and to the club, and...you get the picture.
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...He was the Minister of the Minorsville Christian Church located near Stamping Ground, KY.
...Becky and Tom have three children; John, single and in worship ministry in Nicholasville, Kentucky; Sean, married (Jennifer, elementary school teacher) with twins (Grace and Patrick, b.d. 10/31/04) and regional director of Papa John's Pizza in Central KY; Kara, married (Vince Taylor, prison guard) and working with Hospice East in Winchester, KY.
...Tom went to be with the Lord on November 13, 2009 after a lengthy battle with cancer. If you have been touched by Tom's writings please send an email to Tom's son at jkelley@catalystchristian.net
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