Minister's Blog
- You are the man!
5 months ago - Embrace the Middle East
8 months ago - God calls everyone
10 months ago - Trip to Israel
one year ago - Spiritual accompaniment
one year ago
Wheelie bin ministry
Earlier this morning, I was working away in my study, when I heard the unmistakeable sound of our wheelie bins trundling back up the manse driveway (for those not living in East Renfrewshire, we get a grand total of 4 wheelie bins each here!). Given that I’m the only one at home today, I was a bit flummoxed as to how our bins were propelling themselves back to their regular home. But then the answer came into view through my window. It was one of our church members, who regularly operates a bin ministry (‘binistry’?) to ourselves and other local church folk. Just to clarify, I don’t leave the bins out deliberately, expecting this individual to clear them away. But it’s a real blessing when he simply takes it upon himself to carry out this random act of kindness, without any fuss or fanfare. It’s actually lovely to be served in that kind of way, and I think that when we accept these small acts of service, we’re not only being blessed by that person but we’re also blessing them too.
Just a small act of kindness in daily life – all too easy to let it pass by without much thought or comment. Sadly,we can be far too quick to forget such actions, and instead to focus on the negative things that happen to us as we go about our days. There’s an Indian Proverb that tells us “It is easy to forget a kindness, but one remembers unkindness”. So, my challenge to myself and to you today, is to magnify these small, random acts of kindness in our lives. Take just a few moments to do something kind for someone else, with no thought of reward or praise. Or take a moment to recognise and give thanks for the way in which someone else has shown kindness to you recently - allowing you to pull out into traffic, letting you go first at the supermarket queue – whatever it might be for you. Let’s all develop our own ‘binistries’ as we go about our daily lives.
Oh, and those who know me will know that I like to ‘bless’ others with a good pun now and again (great to have a captive audience every Sunday). So I spent ages trying to think of a decent bin pun. Sadly, as it turns out, they were all rubbish….