As many of you may know, I do a lot of leadership reading, as well as reading to improve myself. All of this in addition to the regular educational reading I do. (Yes, I am admittedly a nerd, and not afraid to be one.) One thing that I see a lot in leadership reading is the thought of customer service. I'm sure you have heard the phrase, or one similar to it. "The customer comes first" or "The customer is always right." Reading through sales research, it's often highlighted that the best salespeople don't sell you the product they want to sell, but the one you want to buy. Yes, I know that seems like a fine distinction, but it's also a very important one in the area of sales.
That got me thinking about how this could possibly relate to our life in Christ. A good salesman looks to see what is of interest to the customer. The good salesman looks beyond his/her own ego to see things from the customer's eyes, and then attempts to see what he/she can provide that satisfies what the customer is looking for. To put it succinctly, the best sales people try to discover what the customer is looking for, and then works to find something that fits best with the customer's need or desire.
This echoes Christian love to some small extent. (Yes, I know a few of you may take exception to me comparing Christian love with sales, but please bear with me on this.) As Christians, we look to put aside our own wants and needs to serve others. Just read Philippians 2 if you want to see an awesome example of this. We look not to our own interests (in sales terms, not to sell what we want to sell), but to the interests of others (again, in sales terms, to see what truly matters to the customer, seeing things through their eyes). We do what is right for the other, not what we wanted to do for ourselves.
Now, every example is going to always fall short, and this one is no exception. We don't "sell" Christian love to another with the ulterior motive that we want then to become Christian. Of course, our hope and prayer is that they will see our caring action toward them and then question why we would put their needs over our own, or they will wonder why we were so interested in them and in their life, why we wanted to make sure that they received what they needed. Yes, we hope that we will have the opportunity to share our hope in Christ Jesus with them and see them come to believe in what He has done for them. But, and here's the kicker, we aren't caring toward them in order to do that. We care for them because God created us to care for one another. If we are kind and caring toward them with the hope of their conversion, we are basically utilizing another (poor, I might add) sales tactic, called bait and switch.
In conclusion, Christian love seeks to find what is of meaning and need with the person with whom we are relating, and then doing it. We do it without any expectation in return. Their response is in their hands, and is guided by God and His Spirit. That is ultimately what grace is. Giving with no expectation in return, and then pleasantly thankful when there is some response, such as an opportunity to share Christ's forgiveness and hope, or even to say that we did it because God first cared for us in such a way.
That got me thinking about how this could possibly relate to our life in Christ. A good salesman looks to see what is of interest to the customer. The good salesman looks beyond his/her own ego to see things from the customer's eyes, and then attempts to see what he/she can provide that satisfies what the customer is looking for. To put it succinctly, the best sales people try to discover what the customer is looking for, and then works to find something that fits best with the customer's need or desire.
This echoes Christian love to some small extent. (Yes, I know a few of you may take exception to me comparing Christian love with sales, but please bear with me on this.) As Christians, we look to put aside our own wants and needs to serve others. Just read Philippians 2 if you want to see an awesome example of this. We look not to our own interests (in sales terms, not to sell what we want to sell), but to the interests of others (again, in sales terms, to see what truly matters to the customer, seeing things through their eyes). We do what is right for the other, not what we wanted to do for ourselves.
Now, every example is going to always fall short, and this one is no exception. We don't "sell" Christian love to another with the ulterior motive that we want then to become Christian. Of course, our hope and prayer is that they will see our caring action toward them and then question why we would put their needs over our own, or they will wonder why we were so interested in them and in their life, why we wanted to make sure that they received what they needed. Yes, we hope that we will have the opportunity to share our hope in Christ Jesus with them and see them come to believe in what He has done for them. But, and here's the kicker, we aren't caring toward them in order to do that. We care for them because God created us to care for one another. If we are kind and caring toward them with the hope of their conversion, we are basically utilizing another (poor, I might add) sales tactic, called bait and switch.
In conclusion, Christian love seeks to find what is of meaning and need with the person with whom we are relating, and then doing it. We do it without any expectation in return. Their response is in their hands, and is guided by God and His Spirit. That is ultimately what grace is. Giving with no expectation in return, and then pleasantly thankful when there is some response, such as an opportunity to share Christ's forgiveness and hope, or even to say that we did it because God first cared for us in such a way.
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