Happy Sunday to you. I am rushing a little this morning to get to church. Our hot ham and hard roll sale is today. The money raised will be used to support our team that is going to Haiti later this summer. My travel mug will be filled with Door County Jingle Bell Java Coffee. Yes, I still have some Christmas flavors to use. I am saving some for Christmas in July.
"You can trust your car to the man who wears the star" was a popular advertising slogan used by the Texaco Oil Company back in the day. I am not sure if they still use it or not.
My first job at fourteen was working in a Texaco gas station just down the street from our home. I worked there for a long time until my life sent me in other directions. It was an experience I would not trade for anything. I learned to pump gas, wash windows, check for the proper air pressure in tires, repair tires, change wiper blades, change oil, replace brakes, mufflers , carburetors, gears, radiators, light bulbs, make change, sell cigarettes, clean bathrooms, drive stick shift, plow snow, hand out green stamps, flirt with old ladies and learned to swear. When I took the job, I thought about how nice it would be to repair cars and pump gas. Little did I know that we were also a distributor for Coca Cola, and when there was a soda sale I would be lifting wooden crates in and out of cars filled with glass bottles, sometimes 10 per car. The job was much more than a little work on cars and pumping gas. What made that corner fuel emporium successful was the fact that we did it all. The rest rooms were clean and your car was fixed correctly. When we washed a windshield it was clean. If we said your oil was just right, it was. I remember a young mother rushing into the gas pump area, stopping the car, telling me to "filler up" and asking me to watch her kids as she raced toward the restrooms with what I suppose was a two to three year old toddler, who was ready to have an accident in his pants. So I watched the kids, washed the windows and checked the oil. How many places can you do that in now?
My first job at fourteen was working in a Texaco gas station just down the street from our home. I worked there for a long time until my life sent me in other directions. It was an experience I would not trade for anything. I learned to pump gas, wash windows, check for the proper air pressure in tires, repair tires, change wiper blades, change oil, replace brakes, mufflers , carburetors, gears, radiators, light bulbs, make change, sell cigarettes, clean bathrooms, drive stick shift, plow snow, hand out green stamps, flirt with old ladies and learned to swear. When I took the job, I thought about how nice it would be to repair cars and pump gas. Little did I know that we were also a distributor for Coca Cola, and when there was a soda sale I would be lifting wooden crates in and out of cars filled with glass bottles, sometimes 10 per car. The job was much more than a little work on cars and pumping gas. What made that corner fuel emporium successful was the fact that we did it all. The rest rooms were clean and your car was fixed correctly. When we washed a windshield it was clean. If we said your oil was just right, it was. I remember a young mother rushing into the gas pump area, stopping the car, telling me to "filler up" and asking me to watch her kids as she raced toward the restrooms with what I suppose was a two to three year old toddler, who was ready to have an accident in his pants. So I watched the kids, washed the windows and checked the oil. How many places can you do that in now?
Here's the thing. We became to all people what they needed at the moment. Some people stopped in daily for two dollars worth of gasoline and really what they wanted was to just talk.
As Christians we are to be the same way. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23New King James Version (NKJV)
Serving All Men
19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; 20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ, that I might win those who are without law; 22 to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 23 Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you
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