Live Your Passion, Tell Your Story, Change Your World A Challenge to Fulfill Your Calling

;INTRODUCTION: ; ;We all desperately want to leave an imprint. To leave things and people better ; than we found them. Yet we fear that the impact of our lives could more resemble ; a fist in the water than a handprint in cement. The handprint is there to stay. ; But take the fist out of water, and for a brief moment there are ripples. Then ; the water settles and smoothes, as though our fist had never been there. ;And so we dread the notion that, in the end, our lives might not count for ; much. That we might get stuck in a dead-end and thankless job that nobody notices. ; That our lives might be spent cleaning up the messes of others, a vicious and ; never-ending cycle of futility. ; ;Service with a Smile ;Andy was building a new home. Today his construction crew was having an awful ; time with their subcontractors, supplies and schedule, as often happens in the ; building industry. Nothing was going right, the construction boss was frustrated, ; and the men were grouchy. The weather was hot and humid, and the atmosphere ; clung like a wet blanket. ;To add to the misery, the construction site's port-a-john reeked with odors ; that made the crew gag. The company that was supposedly charged with keeping ; it serviced hadn't been heard from for days. ;Suddenly, blaring music began to drift through the air as a truck rolled down ; the street toward the site. The music seemed to fill the block with its rock ; beat, and everybody's attention shifted to the vehicle that slid to a stop in ; front of the partially completed house. ;When the truck came to a halt, they noticed it wasn't the regular maintenance ; man who got out. Instead, it was a big burly guy, covered with tattoos, flashing ; a huge smile and singing at the top of his lungs. He greeted the entire crew ; with a contagious grin, grabbed his materials and headed-enthusiastically!-into ; the odiferous disaster. Just before stepping in, he yelled across the yard that ; the former man had quit, and he would be taking overa? then he disappeared ; into the 4 by 4 cubicle. Rumblings began inside the port-a-john and grew louder ; and louder, as though he were attacking every inch of the relief station. It ; almost sounded like he was wrestling with a tiger in there. ;Now there's only one thing worse than the smell of a port-a-john that hasn't ; been maintained well, and that's the smell of cleaning that same port-a-john ; on a hot and humid day. But this guy seemed to stay inside forever. Every man ; on the site wondered how he could stand it and thought of how quickly they would ; have raced in and out just to escape that stinking environment. ;After awhile the crew noticed the stench had dissipated. Mr. Good-natured finally ; emerged with his smile still intact. "Hey," he said, "the guy ; taking care of this for you wasn't doing a very good job. From here on out, ; I guarantee this will be the best it can possibly be, because I'm here to serve ; you." With that, he hopped in his truck, grinned, waved, turned on the ; blaring music once again (which the construction boss now recognized as a Christian ; radio station) and began to back out of the driveway. ;Dumbfounded, one man yelled to the driver, "How can you do that? More ; important, why do you do that?" ;"Oh, it's simple," replied Mr. Good-natured. "You see, I work ; for the Lord. And I do every task as though I were doing it for Him. See you ; next week!" And with a smile, and singing at the top of his voice, he drove ;Reccord, Bob is the author of 'Live Your Passion, Tell Your Story, Change Your World A Challenge to Fulfill Your Calling' with ISBN 9781404101098 and ISBN 1404101098.