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Hope and hilarity
By Chuck Terrill
Last Updated: June 29, 2017

Looks can be deceiving

I was wearing my old work clothes, lying on my back underneath the church water fountain. I heard the entry door click open. Up to that point, I was alone in the church, but now I had company. 

I had one arm up in the water fountain and didn't want to snake it out, so I simply said, "Hello."

A man's deep voice said, Hi." 

I turned myself a little so I could see his shoes and his trousers, and he had a salesman's display case in his hand. 

Before I could say anything, he said, "You the only one here?" He was looking into my empty office.

"Yep," I said, "I'm the only one here."

"I thought so," he answered. "There's only one car in the parking lot."

I didn't say anything, so he continued. "I guess I'll have to come back, another time, when someone is here."

"OK," I said. He turned and left. I was glad.

He was looking for the pastor. He was looking for "someone." I am the pastor, but, I wasn't in my office, just like the salesman said. I am the pastor, but I didn't look like one. I am the pastor, yet, the visiting salesman assumed I was a maintenance man. Appearances can be deceiving, can't they?

The late Wayne Smith told me about a time when his wife put him on a diet and insisted that he get some exercise. He tried walking in Lexington, Ky., but motorists kept stopping. Wayne was well known in Lexington. People must have thought the portly preacher needed a ride. So he took to walking on an abandoned railroad track. He would time his stride to step on the crossties and walk about two miles each day. 

Wayne said, "My wife once asked me if I ever met anyone out there walking on the railroad tracks. I told her that every once in a while I would see some old hobo walking down the tracks. She said ‘He's probably the president of the biggest bank in Kentucky!'"

Then, Wayne said, "Somewhere else, that banker's wife might have asked him, ‘Do you ever see anyone while you're out walking on the railroad tracks?' Her husband answered, ‘Every once in a while I see an old, fat hobo walking down the tracks.' She said, ‘That's Wayne! He's the preacher of the biggest church in Lexington!' "

Of course, you know the moral to this story. It's what's on the inside that is important. At times, a banker might not look like a banker, and a preacher might not look like a preacher. We easily misjudge people based on their appearance. Because of that, we don't speak to them, or they may not speak to us. That's a shame. The banker might have needed a preacher, and the preacher might have needed a loan.

Just so, I missed the opportunity to share the gospel with a man because he looked like a salesman. He might have been ready to hear it. The salesman missed an opportunity to make a sale because I didn't look like a preacher. I might have been interested. Especially if his sample case was filled with water fountain parts.

"The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)

Chuck Terrill is pastor of Valley Center Christian Church. Reach him at chuck@vcchristian.church or at 755-1233.




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