Last Sunday as Kristi and I were on our way to church we had just passed our former church home-Harvest Chapel. As we made our way past, we saw someone named Clint. For those who don’t know who Clint is; even if you don’t attend Harvest Chapel you’ve likely seen him walking a gravel shoulder along highways and back roads carrying a large garbage bag. He picks up cans presumably to help make ends meet. Only on rare occasion have we seen him in shoes. Every time we see Clint alongside the road, quickly walking the gravel shoulder with the look of a "man on a mission" we are blessed at the sight. Some people just by the pure essence of being themselves have that affect on us. Clint’s background and life in general, I will just leave out of this for the sake of privacy but for those who know who Clint is, this probably will have a bit more “bite” to it.
So what was so special last Sunday as we passed Clint? Clint was about ¼ mile from church, it was 9:38 a.m. and he had plenty of time to make the 10:15 a.m. service. He was on County Line Rd., cars backed up a few deep behind him…barefoot…running. Kristi and I at that moment seemed to lose whatever thoughts were going through our head and were turned to what God is doing with this man’s life. Once again God has used someone; He has used someone nameless to so many people and yet He used Clint that particular morning in part to “reel-in” my and Kristi’s attention to where it belonged...we were running a bit late. If you can envision Clint at this moment please do. Please get this image in your mind…barefoot and running to church, afraid he’s going to miss something; perhaps afraid He might miss something important from God if he gets there too late. In essence he’s chasing after God and he doesn’t want to miss a thing. He had plenty of time to get there on time and yet he wasn’t going to risk it-so he ran. We’re grateful for churches like Harvest Chapel that are reaching people in a way that has them running after God.
How many times do we who have all the time in the world to get ready for a late morning church service, allow ourselves to be so absolutely lazy and nonchalant, that we would risk missing something? Perhaps it’s just no big deal just to miss a bit of the worship part of the service-right? If you have to miss any part-that would be the part to miss because the “takeaway” part is in the message segment-right? Think about that (and I know a lot of people think that way) as if God will understand that whatever we need to fiddle with on Sunday morning, is somehow going to honor Him that we were able to squeeze Him into our busy Sunday schedule. If we can’t do better about bringing ourselves to Him on Sunday He probably isn’t going to expect much from the other six days.
People like Clint remind me just how insignificant I can be no matter how significant I often like to believe I am.
Unless something has changed which I doubt, Clint can probably be found sitting up front at church, in the first row and that’s another thing; how most people would rather blend in? Not Clint. When it comes to God-he wants that front-row seat. Its interesting how front row seats are usually available even when the house is packed.
