A couple of final things Wayne Corderio shared that I think are worth mentioning. He spoke a lot about the importance of using your gift and finding your place to serve. He emphasized the point, “Simple acts done with a genuine heart will get heaven’s attention.” So it is not the size of your gift or the size of your act of serve that gets heaven’s attention but rather a heart attitude that wants to serve.
Wayne also spoke about how easy it is to get offended when you are part of a church. Your name gets accidentally left off an email list, a birthday list, an invitation list. People forget to show their appreciation, forget to tell you something that everyone else knows, or forget to acknowledge your significant event. You feel overlooked, ignored, or not in the “in group”. (Interestingly enough I don’t think anyone ever feels part of the “in group”. The “in group” is just an illusion—there are so many overlapping friendship networks, there is no real “in group”.) Wayne quoted Mark 6:1-5: In Jesus’ hometown the people took offense and he could not do any miracles there. If we want miracles to happen we can’t afford to take offense—regardless of how badly we are treated. It’s tough not to get offended but fortunately we have a high priest, Jesus, and he knows what we go through because he’s been there.
This photo is of the Hawaiian Convention Center in Honolulu where the conference was held. The view was amazing.
