Press the arrow to listen to Steven Curtis Chapman sing “Yours” as you read today’s devotion.

Scripture
There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.  When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”  Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.  Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”  Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Luke 19:2-9

Observation
Importance is what we all long for, especially people like Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was clever enough to compensate for his shortness. Taller people had brushed him off, so it was no problem for him to rip them off.  He would become rich, if by extortion and he would be looked up to if it was with stolen riches. But no matter how high the stilts of success Zacchaeus strutted on, he never felt tall enough.

News had come to him through the Fraternal Order of Tax Collectors of the kindness of Jesus to their profession. When Jesus came to visit his town, Zacchaeus just had to see this kind Rabbi for himself. But in the crowd Zacchaeus felt again the painful truth that he just didn’t measure up. No one liked the little pest. No matter how much money he had he could neither grow taller nor beg his way to the front line.  So Zacchaeus went out on a limb. He reached higher than he had ever done in his life. We’re supposed to laugh at the picture of an IRS man sitting in a tree in a blue, pin-striped suit with his wing-tipped Oxfords dangling over the branch.

Jesus offered Zacchaeus the gift of significance. The Master picked one face out of the crowd and asked to go out to lunch with him. For the first time in his life, someone important wanted Zacchaeus’ home and not just his tax office. That gift of recognition gave Zacchaeus space to repent. The desire for repentance had been in Zacchaeus’ heart, but it was Jesus’ kind notice of a disliked man that made it possible.

Application
There are many people I pass by in a given day who have climbed trees at the extremity of their desire to be important. To most they seem off putting. By being ignored their sin problem only grows worse. But the choice to acknowledge and to include them may be the very thing to change their hearts. Often those who seem to have things together, really don’t. They are waiting for someone to be genuine with them. Acceptance will bring them out of their tree of self-importance and bring them to level ground.

Prayer
Father, as I read this story, I reflect that Jesus works the same today. He ignored the crowd to help one person who everyone else had written off. Help me to have peripheral vision like Jesus to see Zacchaeus in a tree beside the road. Help me to go out on a limb to rescue them from self-importance with including love. Amen.

Scripture
Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” Acts 3:2-4

Observation
Eye contact with people in need is a risky thing for a busy leader to do. The day is streamlined when problem people are kept in peripheral vision. A leader knows that those people are on the edges, but he glances at his watch and keeps moving. A busy pastor knows that the time needed to cross a crowded room is not measured by the distance to be walked but by the people to be met. Each person is “just a minute” and can turn a walk from the front of the church to the back of the church into an hour long slow crawl.

Peter and John set for leaders a very different approach to time management. They made eye contact and took time to be involved in human need. The result was more than a miracle; they stepped into a divine moment. God had scheduled a preaching appointment for them that day that would spark a revival. Had they whisked past the man they would have missed the appointment and lived a day never recorded in the Bible. Instead they risked involvement and stepped into history.

Jesus had modeled for these men a very different perspective of time management. Time managers advise that busy leaders should focus on accomplishing written daily tasks and to screen people to avoid interruptions. Jesus, however, never rejected anyone who came to him for help. Occasionally he delayed for a few days or posed a challenging question, but he always took time to be involved in human need. He demonstrated that human problems are a portal into God’s purposes.

Eye contact with people in need requires faith in God that he is in control of interruptions and ultimately of our day. Often we trust a watch, Daytimer, or Blackberry more than the Lord.

Eye contact with people in need requires confidence that there is enough time to help. Somehow if we put the need first the Lord will sort out the rest of our day.

Eye contact with people in need requires humility that God’s agenda is more significant than our own. The Bible is strewn with examples of God interrupting good people doing good things to get his will done.

Application
I’ll admit it. I don’t like making eye contact with people in need. That’s probably because I take my own importance too highly. Marginalizing people is exactly that: fencing people with problems into the margins of my life. A fully checked “to-do list” is not an evidence that I have done the will of God.

Prayer
Father, okay here I go. I open my life today to people in need. I am interruptible. Amen.

Scripture
Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” John 4:6-7

Application
I’ve spent some time with a pastor who never lets a name tag go unnoticed. Every time we’ve gone out to lunch he has taken time to use the name that is there to read. It is a magical charm that creates instant rapport. As he explained to me, “People who work with the public have so much to put up with. I don’t want to make their day any more difficult. I want to lighten their load.”

Sometimes I’m there but oftentimes I’m not. Like the other day when checking into a motel I was more interested in the bed in the room and the sleep it offered to me than I was with the human being checking me in. I remember standing there thinking, “I’m tired so will you hurry up!” I didn’t voice my frustration as she methodically filled in every blank box (hey I don’t trash rooms or steal towels and I always pay for my phone calls so would you hurry!). I didn’t speak my thoughts but I’m sure she could feel them. Was that really the impression Jesus wanted me to give?

Jesus was tired enough that he did not want to go shopping. He just wanted to sit on a bench. Any man with a wife at Christmas in a mall can relate. Yet he had time to initiate a long conversation for the benefit of another. Kindness such as this is a small thing that does not seem theologically significant. But it was to Jesus.

Application
Kindness matters. People thrive on it. Jesus wants me to offer it, even when I’m tired.

Prayer
Father, help me to remember the human being under every franchise uniform. Help me to see the value of people as you do. Amen.

Scripture
But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all. 1 Corinthians 12:31

Observation
There are two ways to pray about the days that we live.

First is to pray, “Lord, use me greatly.”
It accents the word “greatly”.
It’s a showroom prayer from the staring line.

The other is to ask, “Lord, greatly use me.”
The spotlight is on the word “use”.
It’s a workshop prayer that will get us past the finish line.

We have a choice in life to be remembered for our gifts or to be recalled for our love.

It is clear which way of living is most excellent. Humans define excellence in terms of performance while God only grades the quality of our love. While we polish the finish, God checks the dipstick to see what’s on the inside.

Application
If I want an A in God’s course of life I need not so much to perform well but as to love well.

Prayer
Father, this sentence is a teaser to look past the skills of life and to find the heart of living. If I am remembered for how well I performed I have failed. If you are remembered because of how I loved, then I have succeeded. Lord, love through me today. Amen.