I heard a story about youth evangelist Ken Owens describing an evening in his life. Ken was scheduled to speak to a large group of young people. He was running late when he pulled into a full-service gas station for fuel. 

A little guy came out from the glass-faced office. He had a toboggan pulled down low, his face was covered with acne, his hair was greasy, and his pants were so large he had to keep pulling them up. The guy spoke poorly and slowly. It seemed to take forever for him to pump the gas. When Ken gave him his credit card, it took several minutes before he came back to say they didn’t accept that card. Ken gave him another card only to learn after several more minutes that it didn’t work. 

Finally, in desperation, Ken asked, “Do you still take cash?” The little fellow then took several more minutes to make change and return it. Ken was so furious when he left that he backed up and spun his back tires on the “ding ding” rope! 

A few blocks away, the Holy Spirit began to convict him about his impatience and rudeness to the attendant. He drove back up and the little guy was too scared to come out of the office! Finally, Ken said to him, “I’m really sorry for the way I treated you.” The man pushed back his toboggan and said, “That’s okay mister. Everybody treats me that way.” 

There are a lot of people who might say, “Everybody treats me that way.” In a cold, lonely, impersonal world, those who take time to care for others are the exception not the rule. When we receive Christ, we not only enter into a relationship with Him, but with every other believer. We are called to serve and care for others.