Word of the Week: Projects

By the time you’re reading this, you’re likely waist deep in projects. Maybe it’s projects at home: repairs that need to happen, meals that need to be cooked, bills that need to be paid. Maybe it’s projects at work: deadlines approaching, sales targets to make, emails to send. Or perhaps it’s at school: reading to do, papers to write, tests to study for. Wherever you find yourself in life, you probably have a list of projects you need to accomplish.

Pause for just a second. Don’t let people become one of those projects.

On Sunday we looked at 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 and one of the things we learned from Paul’s example is that love is a requisite for service. If we treat people like a project to complete or as one more thing on our To-Do List, we’ll never serve them like Jesus. We have to love them first. We have to want the very best for them.

One of the practical ways we can treat others as people instead of as projects is to listen. Pause and really hear what people are saying instead of trying to get out all the things we want to say to them. What’s got them excited and passionate right now? What are the heavy or difficult things they’re carrying? When we listen to someone else rather than pushing to get a word in, we show them love and respect. We treat them like a person we enjoy instead of like a project we must impose ourselves upon. And in that way, we serve them.

Who can you listen to – I mean really listen to – this week?