“For God so loved ______ He gave His only begotten Son…” John 3:16
Signing up for a 7 night cruise over the Christmas vacation was a wish come true. My wife and I were tired and needed the rest. The price was unbelievably low for a cruise over New Years. But hey… who was ‘I’ to complain. I figured, as long as I didn’t have to row… how bad could it be? Expecting nothing, I couldn’t be deceived. We headed off the day after Christmas.
I am happy to say that the cruise was a phenomenal success. Since I hadn’t expected anything, everything was far beyond wonderful. But halfway through the cruise, we received a notice that the policy for tipping had changed and was going to be automatically billed to the tune of $12.50 per person/per room! The attitude on the ship was mutinous! Some of the folks we had talked to were unhappy with the service of some of the staff… and now we knew why. Staff wasn’t getting paid much.
Since I am a grateful believer in Jesus Christ, I always want to leave a witness and good impression for. But now the gratuity was being forced, and another entity, the shipping company, was going to determine the tip for me. Motivation for excellent service had just gone out the window. Having been a 100% commissioned salesman most of my career… I knew how that felt!
Being on the ocean with no where to go gives plenty of time to read and think. I rolled that idea of motivation around in my head and considered WHY ‘I’ do what ‘I’ do. Soon, verses of the Bible started popping up to feed my train of thought. That could mean only one thing…God was trying to tell me something.
Why did God send His son to die for ME? The Bible is clear. While Christ ‘came to destroy the works of the devil’ (1 John 3:8) that was NOT his primary motivation. His motivation … was His LOVE FOR ME! John 14 records Jesus words telling us that if we love HIM… WE will do what HE says in return. I was convicted… and even preached a sermon on it! The theme? “How much do I REALLY love Jesus?” When asked the question, “what is the greatest commandment,” Jesus didn’t hesitate! He simply said… ‘Love God more than anything else’ (my paraphrase)! I had to look back over 2018 and ask myself the hard question… “did I?”
I am grateful that God placed my failure on His Son and I do not have to bear it. Receiving His grace, I am free because of His love gift. But it doesn’t let me off the hook. I have a life of love and service He still expects from me. And I am committing to doing what He wants… So I tipped my waiter and room steward really well anyway.. and left them with Jesus! Yup… 2019!!! So far so good!
