Acts 40 - Day 19: 'Daily Grind'

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40acts - the generosity challenge for Lent, from Stewardship

Act 19: Daily Grind

ACT 19: Daily Grind

Our lives are often built around routines. People factor highly into those routines, but sometimes they become nameless and faceless as we concentrate on our own tasks and desires. Today we'll take a moment to get off the hamster wheel and show some gratitude towards the ones we're most likely to overlook.

‘He will reply, 

”Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”' 

(Matthew 25:45 NIV)

My churches are not massive in numbers but they are big in heart. Take Hazel for example; she helps me at weddings. Hazel took some persuading to get involved because she was worried that she didn’t have posh enough clothes to be a wedding verger. I told her I wasn’t bothered about what she wore. She said, ‘Yes, but it’s not your wedding, is it, Kate?’ She smiles at everyone, arrives about two hours before, hoovers, dusts and makes sure the kettle is on for me and the organist. She keeps a sewing kit in her cupboard for wayward best man’s buttons and always makes sure I have clean tissues. A couple of weeks ago she was poorly; I thought we could manage without her. I suddenly realised just how much Hazel does. The seats for the bridesmaids went unreserved, the best man’s flies were down (Hazel always checks) and when a guest had a coughing fit halfway through no one brought her a glass of water.

And Hazel isn’t the only one; there’s Graham the church warden, Andrew the treasurer, Mary, Josie, Elaine, Dorothy, Joy – the list goes on. Each one quietly and devotedly getting on with the things that need doing, things that I admit I sometimes don’t notice or say thank you for.

I gave Hazel some flowers last week. A few days later I noticed the same bunch in Hazel’s neighbour’s window. ‘I am sorry, Kate; I’m not ungrateful,’ Hazel explained. ‘It’s just I thought the old lady next door would like them better.’

Today's blog was written by Kate Bottley, a Priest in the Church of England and the Gogglebox Vicar. Find out more about her and support her chosen charity here.

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