waste your time.

I recently was at an event for The Pearl House and a sweet older woman approached me. She had started a local chapter of an organization that many of you are probably familiar with, but only around 10 people attend their monthly meetings. She proceeded to tell me that she would love for me to come and share with them about The Pearl House but didn’t want to waste my time. I quickly replied that it would not be a waste of my time and I would love to have the opportunity to share. She continued, “they really are a great group who love to help others,” still trying to convince me of their worthiness. I’m pretty sure I cut her off, looked her straight in the eyes, grabbed her shoulders, and said firmly, “they sound wonderful and I would love to meet them.”

The first thing that I thought about was the parable of the lost sheep when Jesus leaves the 99 for the 1. No one was a “waste of his time” to Jesus, so why should anyone be a waste of my time? Jesus valued people and He cared about their lives. He saw them and still still sees you! Think about the woman at the well. She was not a waste of His time although the world would have said differently. Jesus loved people. He would stop, redirect His plans, just so He could make time for someone. He saw the value in others even when they didn’t value themselves.

We are given the task to be like Jesus. As a follower of Christ, we are to love like Him, act like Him, respond like Him, think like Him, and “waste our time” on others. We will never be fully like Jesus but I know I want to strive to reflect Him as much as possible.

Philippians 2:5, “In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.”