Washing Sheets

January 3, 2008

By Gary Rogers

"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves" (Romans 12:10, NIV).

As I stepped off the platform after participating in a Vietnam Memorial Wall ceremony a man met me with a big grin. He is a Tulsa fireman in the fire marshal's office. After a brief greeting he said, "You'll never know how much of an impact you had on my life."

With that comment my mind quickly rushed back about 17 years to the time and place our lives had crossed paths. We had worked at the same fire station on a number of occasions. I was a driver and he was a private.

I remember one time he got real angry with me and even threw an insult my way, saying, "OK, that's how Christians are!"

At the fire station the privates were responsible for washing the sheets every Monday and Thursday. I liked washing my sheets every shift. I preferred to sleep where no man had slept before. It was Monday, I was completing my daily routine and this insult was hurled my way because I was only doing my sheets and not everyone else's.

After his personal slam, he walked out the door and went to the other end of the fire station. I quickly stripped all the beds, washed and dried all the sheets and made all the beds even though I outranked him and it was really his job.

It didn't happen that day, but soon this man changed. He started treating me with respect. He asked me what I was reading and what my next message was about. Then one day he asked me to pray for him.

When we met at the memorial, his wife told me, "He always talked about you reading your Bible."

Today this man is a Christian, and his wife and son have the love and influence of a Christian man in their lives. He said something I believe is the highest compliment a person can give: "I am a Christian today, because of your influence."

I wonder what would have happened had I pulled rank and demanded he wash those sheets? It would have fed my ego. It would have made me feel superior. It would have got me out of doing it. But would it have destroyed an opportunity to touch someone for Jesus? I believe someone's eternal soul is of far greater value than the little effort necessary to wash a few sheets.

Together let's look for opportunities to wash sheets and touch lives for Jesus.

-- Gary Rogers is senior pastor of First Assembly of God in Coweta, Okla.