Please Wait to be Seated

When I was a teenager, I worked as a busboy at a restaurant. One very busy Friday evening an older man approached me with a look of both amusement and irritation. He said to me "Son, I've been coming to this restaurant for 10 years, and in all that time I have NEVER seen a sign like that!" He pointed to our "Please wait to be seated" sign sitting at the entrance to the restrooms!

In all the hectic scramble, one of the other employees moved the sign because it had gotten in the way. But in his rush to get on with things, he forgot that that sign bore a message! It had become, for him, just another piece of restaurant furniture. That's what happens when you work around a sign long enough-you forget its message.


As Christians, it's easy for us to become so familiar with God's Word that we forget that we NEED to hear its message. A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. Prov 1:5  
Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, And give attention to know understanding. Prov 4:1



We forget that God intends to do more than just speak to us--He intends to change us with His Word.  I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. 1 Cor 15:51-52.  We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor 3:18

We cannot expect to be transformed and changed if we begin to treat God's Word like a piece of furniture blending into the background, never to be examined too closely. We must take the time to look at God's Word carefully. We must pray that God, by His Spirit, would show us how relevant it is to our lives.


"But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it" (James 1:25).




Contributor:  Aaron Bartmess