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These small acts of service won’t show up on our “to do” list. Opportunities for Mundane Service have a way of surprising us … sometimes in our busiest moments --- which means we have to be willing to be interrupted.

I had one such unscheduled event a while back when a man came to my office asking if he could do some work in order to earn enough gas money to drive back to Austin. We get a lot of requests like that at the church, but for some reason that day … his plight touched me. And when I listened to his story I thought it just might be genuine.

It was too involved to share here, but he had left his wife and kids. After rethinking his decision he wanted to go back home and try to make things work. I spent a couple of hours talking to him, taking him to lunch, and then found some work he could do for me so I could buy him some gas. I finally prayed with him and sent him on his way.

I have no way of knowing if the story he told was true … and spending my afternoon with him certainly wasn’t on my agenda --- but I believe it was on God’s “to do” list for me that day. I believe the small service I did for him made a difference … and I left the experience encouraged by his words. But I could have missed the chance if I hadn’t been willing to have my day interrupted.

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