Making a Difference in Your World

November 22, 2013

Two short stories

Elevator Operator

Howard Butt Jr. shares an encouraging message about transforming the places we work into opportunities for community—even if that place is an elevator!

Community in an eight-by-eight space. What an amazing example of work, faith, and creativity coming together to transform a place that most of us see as a kind of limbo. Elevators aren't supposed to be places; they're supposed to get us to places, right? For Bruce Renfroe, though, that in-between space was where he spent most of his time. If most of us were running an elevator, wouldn't it be tempting just to assume the same blank expression as everyone else and be content?

Maybe. But that's not what Bruce did. He took a marginal space and turned it into a destination in its own right. So often, it's the in-between times of life that affect the rest of it most significantly. How different would our lives look if we had a few minutes every day on Bruce's elevator? How different would our places of work look if we tried to do the same thing he did? [Follow this link to watch the one-minute video clip or read the transcript.]—The High Calling

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Church in the Checkout Line

As the median age in my home is currently 16, I was the only one awake last Saturday morning at 7:00. I decided to make the most of the time and go grocery shopping.

Grocery shopping at 7 a.m. on a Saturday, as it turns out, is pretty sweet. Hardly anyone was in the store. I meandered around for a while, picked up a few things, and then made my way toward the blessedly short checkout line to pay for my groceries.

Waiting with my mind running through a list of things I needed to get done, I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on around me. But as I stood there in line I began to overhear a conversation going on at the checkout counter. [Follow this link to read the full article.]—Amy Butler

 

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