On Time 4 the LTM + Thorough Cleaning - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today (30-days challenge)

The most meaningful thing a human being can do - before the Lord's return with His kingdom or him being raptured to the heavens - is to enjoy the Lord and worship Him at the Lord's Table Meeting on the Lord's Day! Praise the Lord for this privilege! The Lord's Day is a new beginning - it's the first day of the week, the day of the Lord's resurrection from the dead, the real Sabbath, the day in which we all can gather to enjoy the Lord together, remember Him, and eat + drink together in the Lord's presence! Which brings me straight away to...

One Meaningful Thing I did Today - On Time for the Lord's Table Meeting + A Thorough Cleaning!

I don't know how you are in this respect, but many people I know - myself included - tend to be late especially for this, the Lord's Table Meeting. I don't know, maybe 5-10 minutes late... and sometimes I have no problem with this! I come late to the meeting, and "it's fine" with me... This doesn't mean I have a habit of being late, just that - due to unforseen or unplanned things - I somehow get to the meeting a bit late! When I get there, yes, I do exercise my spirit and participate, but recently I have been shined on by the Lord and convicted concerning this.

How comes I'm never late for work? Actually, if I'm late, I apologize, I promise I won't do it again, etc. How comes when I attend important outward events that I care for - I'm never late? How comes I'm never late when I'm supposed to meet someone at a certain time we both agreed on? How comes I'm never late for interviews? How comes I'm never late for the train or the plane - rather I plan to be there 30mins ahead or hours even? But... when it comes to meeting with the King of Kings at His table, when it comes to meet with the saints - the sons of God - to bring God praise and worship... I have almost no sense of guilt?

This is not to put guilt into people or even into me - but the Lord Jesus, the living Person within us, has something to say about this. Just contact Him and ask Him about it! That's what I did, and I was rebuked, corrected, adjusted, and exposed... so today, even though I had to take the tube (and not the bus as I used to) I made sure I was there right at 10.00am! O, the joy! O, the flow! O, the praise! I was sitting between two dear brothers and as we prayed and praised, the Spirit with our spirit... was so rich and so moving! Praise the Lord... Paying the price - YES, there is a price to pay! - to be on time at the meetings can also bring you some more practical experience and enjoyment of Christ!

This is also true about the home meetings, the prayer meetings, and all kinds of meetings - somehow we tend to get late (for various reasons) to the meeting, and... it can become a habit. Especially when you're young this is more true... In the Full Time Training you just CANNOT be late - and you learn to be regulated in this, in order to be a proper human being and a proper vessel in the Lord's hands. But what about when no one is demanding this from you - when there's no "serving one" that gets you to the meeting, but you have to do it yourself? Would you be early / on time because you just love the Lord? When we meet with the saints - this is the greatest joy on earth! It is here that our spirit never faints, and our lives are filled with worth!

The second thing, as mentioned in the title, is... THOROUGH CLEANING! I'm not sure you YOU are in this, but I both love and hate cleaning! I love cleaning and I love being clean, but at some points in time I just don't want to / hate cleaning! This doesn't mean that it's clean / messy in my room / place all the time, but it means that things pile up, the cleaning gets delayed, other more important things get in the way, etc - and the cleaning part sometimes gets forgotten! It's even more difficult when you have your own place - you don't live with people, parents don't see you to be on your case, you can "do what you want"... but many times the divine life in you and even your inward sense of being a clean-proper-human-being bothers you to CLEAN - and CLEAN THOROUGHLY!

When the divine life comes into us through our regeneration - when we are born again to be sons of God - we start a new life, and there's another Person in us. The Lord is very real and very practical. Though you may not feel anything when you tell Him daily, Lord Jesus I Love You! - yet when the time comes, when there's a practical thing happening, the Lord will be real to you within and He will speak to you specifically. He is not at peace with me enjoying the Lord in my room when my room is in a mess! Many times I repent to Him about the state of my room, the state of my heart, the state of my PC, my facebook comments and pictures, my twitter comments, etc... The Lord has something to say about everything we do/say/are! And the more we listen to Him, though we may do outward things in fellowship with Him, the more we gain Him!

So... please accept my apologies again for "using myself as an example" - I'm not different than anyone else and I'm not "special"; rather, I believe we all have this kind of experiences... - but the Lord somehow needs to make His home in our heart more! The inward enjoyment is expressed outwardly in a practical way by having Christ lived out in us - we become Jesusly human, human yet divine, proper human beings living Christ! ... to cut the story short, after such a wonderful time at the Table Meeting today there was a bothering in me, and when I got home, I was strengthened and motivated within to clean my place! Dusting, wiping, hoovering / vacuuming, washing dishes and cleaning, putting things where they belong, ironing the shirts (30mins of ironing!), arranging things, getting 2 loads of laundry done + putting them up to dry, putting out the trash / rubbish, etc... - these are just some of the things I had to do....

Lord, thoroughly clean my inward being! No separation or cloud between me and You! Shine on us, Lord, and may there be no hindrance. Keep speaking to us. Even in practical things, Lord, we want Your presence. Re-arrange the "furniture" in our heart, and strengthen us to cooperate with You even outwardly in our room, our house, our family, among the people we work / study with... Make us real Christians, real God-men!

One Meaningful Thing Today: Customer Service Done Properly (30-day challenge)

Since one of our workmates is off on holiday to Poland (where I was a few weeks ago) and since the company I work for is a small company, we all felt it! It's August, and it's supposed to be a "dead month", everyone's in holiday, no one is shopping for lights or switches... but no, today especially the phone kept ringing and ringing! We did our best to cope with the situation, but there were a few cases today that we missed some calls - we were too busy with so many things to be done! ... anyways, this is a glimpse of things going on at where I work, which brings me to,

One Meaningful Thing Today:
Customer Service Done Properly!

I was NOT trained in customer service, but since I manage the online store I'm supposed to "know everything about every product on the website", so I also take calls from customers, helping them, especially when it comes to placing orders online, finding products online, browsing, issues with the payments or the website, etc. Anyways, today there were a few customers that simply called in, asked questions and, before I could even answer their question, they answered their own question and thanked me! How cool is that!

But this is not the Customer Service Done Properly I wanted to talk about - no, what I discovered today is that it's one word: LISTEN! We are all so full of ideas, opinions, feelings, moods, issues, and all other stuff. So when a customer calls, the best thing you can do is to LISTEN! And today it happened that this is what I did - I simply listened to this particular customer! Since the online stores and the online stuff is sometimes abstract and not-so-obvious, many times most people need help - at least they need assistance. Even in a physical superstore you need an assistant to show you where stuff is!

This particular customer was on the phone with me for at least 15 minutes, and most of the time I was listening to her going through the steps that the website indicated, clicking, entering data, card details, etc - I was just indicating small things here and there, "guiding her". But the key is that I was not "rushing her" - I simply listened and sometimes said something. It happened to me before several times - especially with elderly customers - that all we needed to do is to "assist" them and they would know how to do it! Most young customers are rushing, they think they know, they mess up, and they still blame us! This is not a stereotype, it's just something we as young ones tend to do! This particular customer eventually placed the online order and gave me a warm "thank you for your time, I really appreciate that! I will recommend you to my friends..."

This is NOT an add for the company I work, but a random story of a meaningful thing I did today - I listened to a customer and guided her, for an extended time over the phone, to place an order online on our website. The key: LISTEN. Now to the REAL side of the story - all the physical and outward things can have principles for life behind them, even spiritual principles. Here's at least 2 such principles I saw here:

• I need to learn to LISTEN to people - listen to the ones around me, to the saints, to my co-workers, to the ones in my vital group, to my siblings and family members, to everyone who happens to be around me and is somehow related to me. Yes, sometimes I can help or I can get help, but listening is most important. Watchman Nee said that the first characteristic of a servant of the Lord is that he is perfected and trained to LISTEN(to the Lord, to the saints, to the Spirit within, to the Lord's speaking, and to the people) (in, The Character of the Lord's Worker).
• When we come to the Lord, HE LISTENS TO US! This is our experience - we come to Him with all our problems, situations, cares, woes, tears, persons, relationships, disappointments, etc, and He listens to us, takes our burden upon Himself... He doesn't stop us to speak, He is not impatient, and He doesn't straight ahead rebuke us or turn His back on us. Sometimes He speaks to us, but most times He gives us the sense of life and peace, and He listens + comforts us / cares for us with His presence...

Lord, make me one who learns to LISTEN to people and LISTEN to the Lord! Which reminds me, maybe I should listen to the Lord right now and stop :) But not before I invite YOU - the reader - to leave your thoughts and comments below. What do you think? I know I have not explored in-depth what customer care means, but I hope you have a better experience or something that you think it would help me / others... :)