{"id":91,"date":"2011-04-25T08:14:01","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T12:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=91"},"modified":"2011-04-19T16:10:06","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T20:10:06","slug":"thats-the-wrong-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/04\/thats-the-wrong-answer.html","title":{"rendered":"That&#8217;s the Wrong Answer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One day while training a new Special Gathering staff member, I asked him if he would clean up a mess left by our members in one of the Bible study classroomes. \u00a0Special Gathering is a ministry within the mentally challenged (intellectually disabled) community. \u00a0Our mission is evangelism and discipleship. \u00a0This new staff \u00a0told me, \u201cI don\u2019t clean up messes like this.\u00a0 I\u2019ve paid my dues.\u00a0 I did that in my other job.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to clean up other people\u2019s garbage now.\u201d\u00a0 That was the wrong answer.\u00a0 Obviously, he didn\u2019t last long in Special Gathering.\u00a0 One of the hallmarks of \u00a0ministry for Christ is that we \u00a0always \u201cget to clean up the messes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is true that when we take 200 members on a spiritual retreat for four days at Vero Beach, the Camp Agape directors have found that it is not a good stewardship of our time to be tied up\u00a0for an hour\u00a0or two\u00a0in \u201cmess fixing\u201d the nasty bathroom\u00a0accidents. \u00a0 That is because during those times, other circumstances rise from the abyss; and that is when real emergencies seem to happen.\u00a0 We\u2019ve learned that\u00a0many times emergencies can be averted by a simple word from a director.\u00a0 Therefore, we ask people who feel it is a privilege to do this type of work.\u00a0 (Yes, Martha, there are other people out there like you.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/04\/serving-each-other.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-102\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/234\/2011\/04\/serving-each-other-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the life of Christ, I believe it isn\u2019t the task that is important.\u00a0\u00a0It is the attitude that dictates godliness.\u00a0 That is true in all of our lives.\u00a0 When our attitude becomes one of\u00a0 true servanthood\u00a0rather than\u00a0haughty eliteness, God will bless us and it becomes a joy to be the servant of others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One day while training a new Special Gathering staff member, I asked him if he would clean up a mess left by our members in one of the Bible study classroomes. \u00a0Special Gathering is a ministry within the mentally challenged (intellectually disabled) community. \u00a0Our mission is evangelism and discipleship. \u00a0This new staff \u00a0told me, \u201cI&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,20,3,40,10,16,11,28,12,4,41,17],"tags":[690,697,21,688,696,7,18,691,13,694,19,689,6],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism-spectrum","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-inspirational","category-intellectual-disability","category-intellectually-disabled","category-mentally-challenged","category-religion","category-simple-truths","category-spirituality","category-teaching","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-camp-agape","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-discipleship","tag-inspirational","tag-intellectual-disabilities","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mental-retardation","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-simple-scriptural-truths"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>That&#039;s the Wrong Answer - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/04\/thats-the-wrong-answer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"That&#039;s the Wrong Answer - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One day while training a new Special Gathering staff member, I asked him if he would clean up a mess left by our members in one of the Bible study classroomes. \u00a0Special Gathering is a ministry within the mentally challenged (intellectually disabled) community. \u00a0Our mission is evangelism and discipleship. \u00a0This new staff \u00a0told me, \u201cI&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/04\/thats-the-wrong-answer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-25T12:14:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-04-19T20:10:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/04\/serving-each-other-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. 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