Original Entry: March 26, 2008
Atascadero, CA
Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 1Thessalonians 4:10b-12
I met Hippie in the DMV more than two years ago, He had just moved back to the Northwest after living for two years in an Alaskan Squatter’s Cabin without running water or electricity. This guy is the real deal-real Chris McCandless, Into the Wild stuff. He was there to get his Oregon license so he could be a delivery guy for a local pizza company. As I waited in line we carried on with our small talk as a young couple dressed in all black made their way to the short DMV counter. The tall, thin woman approached the counter with her too-short leather mini skirt and fish net stockings and proceeded to purposely lean over the short counter and flashed us!
Trying to hide our shock at this pornographic display we continued in conversation. I spoke to Hippie’s eyes with a resolute focus that rivaled any man’s. After several awkward minutes of my new friend trying not to be too obvious with his stares, he bowed his head in surrender to the fish net stockings and said, “God bless America!”
It was the funniest thing I had heard.
That was the last I saw of Hippie (Mark is his real name) until about recently when he showed up at the gym. He had gotten a haircut and shaved in the meantime so I was not sure if it was him, but I approached him anyway and rekindled our friendship. Mark (aka The Hippie) earned the name because of his extreme naturalist way of life. He lives off the land, raises his own chickens, chops his own wood and lives the simplest of lives.
As our friendship grew Hippie shared about his twin brother who was also a youth pastor, his life growing up in the church, and the wounds he incurred there as his search for independence led him away from spiritual things. A few weeks ago he attended church with me for the first time in 15 years! During one of our conversations he told me, “If I ever went to a church it would be this one because you are the only church that has ever tipped me when I delivered pizzas!”
Here was a 34-year old man telling me why he doesn’t follow Jesus but concluding that our church had earned the respect of a visit should he ever decide to return.
Our church had the opportunity to “win the respect” of an outsider, and succeeded through something as seemingly insignificant as tipping the pizza guy!
Man, people are watching you.
I believe that the greatest gift a person can give a man is respect. Aside for the titles men hold, respect is earned, it is won not given. Those who desire to lead others “are to be men worthy of respect” (1Timothy 3:8). A man can demand respect based on his position as father, husband, or leader but at the end of the day the question remains, “Is he a man according to Titus 2:2 who is, ‘worthy of respect.’”
Be a man worthy of respect. Win the respect of others. Earn the greatest gift a man can give another man. No one can earn it for you.
