It’s now past 7 and were catching our fllght in Heraklion (which is an hour drive away) to Rome but as I was taking a bath, a thought occured to me and I really just need to get it off my chest.
First, I really enjoyed my time in Greece. Its a beautiful country and I am having separation anxiety leaving all these great memories behind. There’s so many things I love about Crete and it’s not just the fantastic landscapes, its not just the perfect chilly weather and its not just the nice colorful houses… much more than that I think ‘m attracted to their people. Rarely do I find a place where sales people greet you on the street and do not hard sell (and this is in a tourist area), how often do you walk out a store and feel good about what you buy because you know that you weren’t cheated, rarely do they smile and say thank you genuinely after spending long time trying to sell you something and you don’t buy and rarely do I find restaurants where waiters actually stop to chat with you and share with you their life. This is a country where even if tips are not required, you would feel obliged because they really give good service. Thank you Lord for bringing me here…
Second, I’ve been thinking… what makes this country so different? Yesterday as i was reading on a book on church planting — it said Paul the apostle was a very strategic person. He didn’t have much time but 1. He knew his target that God wanted him to reach the non-Jews (or called gentiles) and 2. He knew he had limited resource time, strength and money. So he placed up the church in Ephesus. Ephesus was located in a cross road. It was an entry point in Greece. if you were to go to Greece you would have to go through this area therefore a chance to learn about Jesus.
My theory, could it be that this fantastic attitude of people is brought about by Jesus in their lives? No wonder we saw so many Christian churches around.
Third and Last, I will make this bold statement, Everyone will benefit from having Jesus in their lives. Regardless of how nice you are alredy… adding Jesus in will just make you nicer. I don’t think anyone has achieved maximum kindness, maximum generosity, maximum service…
This just reminds me of the role I have as a Christian… Have I established an Ephesus and view people not only via their race, sex, height, color, age but whether they have Jesus or not… because whether they admit it or not… everyone could use a dose of Jesus. I’m sure it would make this world a little bit better to live in.
So now gotta rush… I know I’ve messed up the chronological order of our blog by posting this message ahead of our other backlogs.
