Christian 2 Christian

When I was a kid growing up in New York, like lots of other youngsters I was always apprehensive about doing anything in the public eye.

It didn’t matter what size the audience or how well I could do what I was displaying, in my head, there was always a risk of somehow screwing up and making myself look stupid.

And for me and all my pals, public embarrassment was worse than death; you might just as well call in an undertaker after a public blunder.

But mainly because of my walk in Christ, I’d long changed my thinking.

Giving an honest effort, I now believe, is never an embarrassment to God. And His opinion counts much more than public opinion.

I thought about all that when the Spirit brought me around to thinking about all of this recently.

Months ago on a Lord’s Day when my mobility problems served notice that I wouldn’t be getting around the same as I had before, I was serving on the Lord’s Table.

As I walked down an aisle, heading to the front for the collection phase, a sharp, intense stiffness in both legs made me doubt that I’d reach my seat, let alone the front of the auditorium.

So I leaned down and, with no hesitation, whispered to a brother seated near where I stood: “Take over for me.”

I was aware that this brother hadn’t served on the Table in a long while and because of that, he might have feared making some mistakes.

I also remembered that if something like this ever happened in my world in the old days, the person I sought for help might likely have responded with something like: “Hey don’t get me involved. It’s been years since I’ve done anything like serve on the Table – I’d embarrass myself.

Besides you shouldn’t have volunteered if you knew something like this could have happened.”

But on this day in Jesus’ church, I wasn’t embarrassed by publicly needing someone to fill in for me. And I wasn’t apprehensive about who was taking my place.

The Spirit had already changed my mind about coping with possible reactions from the crowd. And that brother just automatically did what Christians do: he stood up for a fellow believer in need.

Jesus and the Spirit teach us all to do that.

“And it came to pass from that time forth, that half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.” (Neh. 4:16)