“Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.”
Earlier this week was the first time I had been in NYC since they added CitiBikes. I must say, I was amazed by the number of riders I saw using the bikes. But, I was even more amazed by the people I saw riding them. Men, women, older, younger, dressed for work, dressed for hanging out, dressed for going out at night, all kinds of people using the bikes for what they needed; to get from one place to another. Before CitiBikes, they would have been in a cab, on the subway, or walking. But, with a little availability of another form or transportation where they didn’t need to buy, maintain, store, lock, or worry about their own bike, they were using a bike to get around Manhattan. And, they were paying for it. What can we learn from this? What I see is that availability of everyday products and services, that when made accessible, that we will pay for the temporary use and fulfill a need. Provide a bike. How simple and to think how long it took us to get here.
I come back to the fact that our availability for others is more valuable than we even imagine. Yesterday, I took a phone call with someone who I didn’t know at all, who wanted to request some information from my experience for a project he was getting off the ground. In 30 minutes we covered a lot of ground. At the end of the time, he told me that the number of people who he couldn’t get to call him back or spend any time with him, were beyond counting. His appreciation of our time was also beyond measurement. In that conversation I got the chance to mention my church activities, this blog, and why I give of my time to talk to others; enough dots for him to connect that part of my expression of God’s purpose for me, access and grace comes through my time allocations. Being available to do God’s work can mean doing it when we least expect it. Being always available and on call for God is what we must do.
Reference: Philippians 2:4 (New Living Translation)