"Pens with Name Tags," or "Different Ways to Love Your Neighbor"

I work in a church office, which makes my desk a very public space.  There are always people coming in and wanting something from it: a pen, scissors, some tape, and such.  And since people also look for these things when I am not here, I long ago got in the habit of putting my personal supplies away each day.  But people still need pens, right?  And they are the people who pay my salary and those whom I am here to serve - so I keep on the corner of my desk supplies for others, always there and ready for use.  Except… when the users carry them off and don’t bring them back!  Arghh!

And so, prolific labeling has ensued.  The pens have name badges, the scissors are adorned with little flags, and the tape and staple dispensers are tattooed – all in the hopes of reminding the users to bring these items back to the office.  On the surface it may seem the silly antics of a control freak.  But at heart, this labeling is not about some compulsive need I have to control the whereabouts of the office supplies, but rather an attempt to love my “neighbors” as myself:  I want them to have readily at hand the things they need, and to do that things need to come back to their proper places.

The dark side, though,  is to judge those who take and abandon and inconvenience the next person as careless individuals, unconcerned for anyone’s welfare but their own.  But if you think about it, you’ll realize as I have that that is not necessarily true.  We are all wired differently – fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together by our Maker in our mothers’ wombs.  And knit together as the Body of Christ, we all serve different functions.  All cannot be an eye.  All cannot be trackers-of-pens.  For some, it is that very ability to freely abandon an office pen any-old-where that allows them to serve others in ways that someone with different gifts and passions cannot. 

So be of good cheer!  We are all different and we all have different gifts and different ways we serve.

"For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  Psalm 139:13-14a

Sometimes, however, we deceive ourselves.  Sometimes the “pen nametags” in our lives are not really for the benefit of others (even though we tell ourselves they are!), but rather to satisfy our own preferences and desires.  Sometimes labeling supplies becomes my passive aggressive attempt to shame others into complying with my sense of order and what is right and good.  Sometimes leaving things lie is merely carelessness, or thoughtlessness, or preferring to move on to the next thing rather than finishing up the last one first. 

As long as we do our best to use our gifts for God, though, it’s all good.  The key is to be attentive to what we do, and why we do it, and make changes as necessary.  And when considering the actions of others, it is imperative to give their motives and intentions the benefit of the doubt, assume they are actively intending for good (unless proven otherwise), and remember that they, too, are fearfully and wonderfully made - just different!.

What irritations do you experience from others that you need to re-evaluate?  Which ones may actually be caused by another person’s unique or different way of loving their neighbor, rather than just being an irritating habit? What actions of yours might others misconstrue as thoughtless instead of servanthood? or vice versa?)