Sour Grapes?

I don’t know much, if anything, about world class gymnastics. I can watch a routine and see some of the flaws. Last evening as I watched the Olympic women’s individual competition on the uneven bars, it was clear that the Chinese competitor made more mistakes than the American competitor. Those “in the know,” with the exception of the judges, of course, were also convinced that the final result was wrong. If that sounds like sour grapes, I apologze. These are just kids, really, performing at the highest level. They are owed a honest evaluation of their work.

Sometimes, in the Church of Jesus Christ, we get our evaluations of the work being performed, wrong. I’m sure that we undervalue the guy who moves tables and chairs, or the “hearer” in AWANA. Sometimes we fail to listen to the pre-service music calling us to worship, even though the excellence, of which we are always reciepients at my particular Church, requires years of preparation and practice. We don’t often hear much thanks for the folks in the nursery who are dealing with diapers and the like. I can’t remember when we celebrated the ladies who made the food, arranged the food, and cleaned up afterwards.

Don’t get me wrong! You’ll never hear a complaint from those folks. They do it because they llove Him, and they llove you. They deserve an honest appreciation for their work.