Today’s Reading : John 16
Over the last couple of weeks we have had some great experiences. The seventh and eighth grader basketball ball teams have advanced to the next level of competition from conference to regional to sectionals. For the seventh grade sectionals, the parents rented a bus for the students to attend the competition. The student section was amazing. They gave a beat to the whole arena. The atmosphere was exciting. Everybody was in it for the team. We had such a great time. The seventh graders won that game and the crowd just erupted. There were so much joy and excitement.
As we were preparing to leave, a grandmother looked up at the stands and saw that there was a lot of rubbish from our section. She made a comment “this is kind of embarrassing because we are visiting another person‘s house and we are leaving a mess“. At that point, I rallied the students and we were able to clean up the student section in two minutes. We actually made it look better than it had before we came.
One of the great lessons that I received as a child was : Leave it better than you found it. This can be used at any point in your life and in any situation. The mark that you make on anything needs to be better than you left it. If you’ve been invited somewhere, clean up before you leave. If you are in a position or employment attempt to leave the organization better than you found it. In your life when you meet people try to give them a little extra from your interaction.
In John 16, Jesus is giving us a picture of when he will leave. He is spelling it out to the disciples how he will leave them. The experience that Christ gave to the twelve, and the disciples, and the world is … leaving it better than before he came. Before Christ came, we did not understand how Heaven and Earth could be combined. We did not understand how the pieces of love and hope brings heaven to earth.
Christ also gave us the reconnection with God the spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit. Because Christ enters the world in a sacrifice this creates a new opening for the Holy Spirit to be with us. Before Christ’s sacrifice, the Holy Spirit was not available to everyone. So by Christ coming and being with us, he made us better than we were before. Because Christ has come with us and the Holy Spirit is able to abide with us, we are able to be better than we were before.
How can we share God‘s love and the experience of the Holy Spirit with others? How can we make an impact on others to be better than they were before? How can we be better from experiencing others as well? Allow God to use you and open your mind of how others make you better this week.
Be blessed