SOLID START
Focusing on life from God's perspective.
SOLID START
Please Put On A Towel
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What if serving others isn’t about being noticed, but about noticing who needs to be served? This week on Solid Start, Greg and Brian discuss what it means to put on the towel and serve. In John 13, Jesus—the King of Kings—knelt down and washed His disciples’ feet, giving us the ultimate example of humble service. How many opportunities pass us by because there’s no recognition, applause, or reward? Whether it’s a coworker, family member, friend, neighbor, or someone at church, we’re surrounded every day by opportunities to follow Jesus’ example. Are you ready to put on the towel this week and serve?
Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Solid Start, a podcast designed to help get your week off to a solid start by focusing on life from God's perspective. I'm Greg Greed, life coach up in uh Indiana for Merrill Bros, Inc., and joined by my uh ever-popular and travel-weary co-host, Brian Hertzog. Brian, welcome back. Thank you. So, what have you been doing, man? I'm traveling to New Orleans, having a great time. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Walking a lot.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, those trade shows are massive amount of concrete jungle, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00You literally cannot see, like when you stand in front of the the convention center in New Orleans, you can't see the corners. Like you just go for on and on and on. And where our hotel is, you can't see where we set up. Like it's clear on the other end. So we did a lot of walking. Okay. And then we have uh a great team still there. Uh they'll be there through uh Thursday, a lot of them through Thursday for teardown and um shipping. So is this like the largest? Yeah, WebTech is the largest water show in the world in um thousands and thousands and thousands of displays and more thousands of people walking around. So it's a great opportunity to have great conversations with folks and just to get our name out there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So we have our leadership team and a number of others there talking to people and and mixing it up and uh having good conversations, hopefully. Hopefully, yeah. Okay. That's what it's all about. That's right. That would be uh that'd be great. Well, thanks to to you and your team for all the work that you did and creating a really cool um display. Is it display? Is that what you call it? Uh okay, yeah. Set up. Set up, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00It's uh exhibit setup. It it was really cool. We um did a lot of thinking and um designing, and there was a lot of prayer into the crates that we shipped that because sometimes they get destroyed and we're gonna be able to do that. Foam letters. Sometimes you get there and then not much left of the crate. Yeah. But we got there and everything was great, and we're like, thank you, Lord. So yeah, uh, yeah, it was it was fun. Yeah, good setup.
SPEAKER_01Well, good, good. Well, hey, all this quarter we've uh been talking about becoming someone others want to follow, not simply because it's a position uh or a title, but because of uh character and trust and presence and care. And so I wanted us to look at a at a passage this uh this morning where someone that really had a title, someone that had all the authority, someone that had uh the name, but yet decided to take it to a whole new level. So I want us to look at a uh very familiar passage in the book of John. It's actually a meal, and it's not just any meal, but it's Jesus' final meal with the 12 who have been with him for probably three and a half years, and it even includes Judas. And so there's uh it's a very unique meal. It's Passover, so it's uh it's one of the uh it's the biggest celebration of the year for Jewish people because they're reminded of what happened in the Old Testament when the death angel passed over them and they were released from bondage in Egypt. So I'll have you read verses three, four, and five that uh tell us, and I'll probably uh stop you along the way.
SPEAKER_00Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God, and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? And Jesus replied, You do not realize what I am doing, but later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus answered, Unless I wash your feet, you have no part with me. Let's stop there.
SPEAKER_01So Jesus wasn't serving because he lacked authority. He wasn't serving from a position of insecurity. He was secure and understanding who he was, and then the person with all the authority in the room gets up from the meal, takes off his outer clothing, wraps a towel around his waist, pours water into a basin, and begins washing his disciples' feet. I was going to ask you, have you ever participated in a foot washing service just as a part of your faith tradition? Yeah, a couple times. Okay. It's a powerful. It really is. You know, for me, and I don't know uh how it how it got you, but it wasn't hard at all to wash somebody else's feet. What was hard was to, in a sense, let someone I mean, I could have done the foot washing for everybody and gone home, but but to have people wash my feet, that really changed it for me. I don't know about you, what your experience was. About the same.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You thinking about washing someone's feet, you know, like those who might be listening, like, why would you ever do that? Why would you do that? Yeah. That is the weirdest thing ever. Yeah. Um, but remember in those days, like they had they wore sandals. Yeah. Right. And their feet were really dirty, dusty roads all the time. Right. Um, they would come in and and have to wash their feet before they entered a home. Um, and so for this, like typically a servant would wash their feet. Yeah. So that I wanted to put that in context of why Jesus got down to wash their feet.
SPEAKER_01Because no one, no servant did it, right? Right. And everybody else thought they were above that. And the person that had all the title, all the authority, uh, all the power, he's the one that ends up washing it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that uh uh if you read uh I think it's um verse 15, kind of uh it's not just about, hey, let's find water and get a towel and go around washing everybody's feet. Uh I don't think it was literally that. Uh it's fine to do it, it's fine, it's a great tradition, but it was about something more than that.
SPEAKER_00Uh Jesus says, I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
SPEAKER_01So it's likely, isn't it, that he's talking about more than just doing a foot washing service. He's talking about how do we kind of figuratively pick up a towel and serve. In other words, it's not about a title, it's more about a towel. And so if you if you manage people, you know, serving may mean doing something you could easily tell someone else to do. If you work beside others, it may mean stepping in when a co-worker is overloaded. And at home, it may mean doing the thing that you keep waiting for someone else to do. Um, so Jesus doesn't tell us to tell us what greatness looks like. He got down on his knees and he showed it. So this uh this week we're looking at this whole idea of uh you know picking up the towel. That's really our um that's kind of our focus this week is to do one thing for someone that's uh not necessarily uh your responsibility. It's unlikely to get any recognition. It's someone that you think normally they would be serving you, but you don't announce it, you don't post it, you don't keep score, you simply serve. And so I guess we're asking each morning this week to say, hey, where can I pick up the towel today? Uh how do I go about doing something today that is an act of service as a way to say, hey, Jesus, I get it. I get what this last meal was all about. I get what it means to pick up a towel, and I'm looking for a way today to serve. You know, we've been talking about becoming someone others can trust. We've talked about noticing people, about knowing people, we've talked about caring for people, and then about serving people. So that's the the towel challenge, if you will. Uh, it's not expected of you, it's outside your responsibility, and it's unlikely to be noticed. Um you you got to do that really all weekend, didn't you? I mean, you had an opportunity to serve our team kind of behind the scenes and have all that set up so then when our team comes in, it's all set up and it's all prepared and it's all ready to go. And it wasn't fanfare, hey, this is all about Brian. It wasn't that at all. It's just you were willing to go down and take time away from your family and serve. And so we on my birthday. On your birth I know. Yeah, how's that? That's that's a not that it's about me.
SPEAKER_00Not that it's about me, but I loved it, man. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I I got to serve with others too. I know that were about it wasn't just you, just you have a great team, and I was so excited to go down there and do that and get that set up with them and figure things out, and it was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I also want to challenge you. There are a lot of things that that we talk about, especially if you're a part of a church, you're like, I wish our church would do this. Well, yeah, that's good. Pick up your towel. That's do. That's right. Yeah. And do it. Yeah. Start that thing that you've always wished the church would your church would have done. Um, that could be the Holy Spirit talking to you, giving you that nudge, yeah. Saying, Let's go. I like if I put this on your heart, uh step into it. Take that step of faith and let's let's make this happen. Don't just wait on others to jump in and and serve. You go do it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, as a pastor, I had a lot of people with the gift of complaining. And I don't think it's a spiritual gift, but it's like, why don't you exactly what you're saying? Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? And and so I learned to say, well, hey, how could you help lead that? How could you help us to do that? If that's if that's on your heart, then it may not be on somebody else's heart, but if you would like to do that, maybe it was a food ministry, it was a clothing ministry, whatever it was, it's like, well, hey, give some time and thought and energy to say, well, if you were going to do that, how how would you lead our church in making that happen? So that's that's an excellent uh um side note to say it's not just about at work, it can be at home or it can be in a local church for those of you that are a part of a church. Um so maybe the final question isn't am I a leader? It's am I becoming the kind of person that others can trust enough to follow by how I serve. Well, Brian, you didn't have an opportunity to be a part of our prayer time uh yesterday. We missed you for that, but we did pray for the for the trade show and all that's happening down in New Orleans. Um, but there just were a number of things that we recognized uh that are going on uh with with our people. And so maybe you're listening to this podcast and you say, hey, I'm I'm one of those. I wasn't at your meeting yesterday, but I've got a lot going on as well. And so we want to pray for you and Brian remind them of of how they get a hold of us and how we can be engaged in what they're going through so we can join them and help them to help carry the burden.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just go to Merlbros, M-E-R-R-E-L-L-B-R-O-S dot com and there's a prayer tab at the top of that page. Just click on that prayer tab, fill out that contact form, and uh we'll pray for you or get in touch with you. Okay, that'd be great.
SPEAKER_01So we'll uh uh I think uh let me pray since you were already down there. Let me pray for the trade show and all the um the connections that are made from that, and then I'll just have you pray for for our team and for the people that are listening that are maybe going through something right now, and uh also have you include this idea that we this week we're gonna pick up the towel. How about that? Perfect. Okay, Father, I just give you thanks for uh the opportunity we have as a company to showcase um what it is that uh is possible with uh some of the many solutions that we have to the issues that people are dealing with in the wastewater world. And so I just pray for great conversations, even this morning, uh this afternoon, tomorrow, pray for all week that uh there'll be great conversations, people will be asking questions, and that uh we'll be able to say, hey, what if you had this issue? How could we solve that as a company? And we have so many solutions uh to the issues that people are struggling with. So we just pray that there'll be great uh opportunities that will come from this, there'll be some uh work that will come out of this, there'll be maybe a new uh sanitation uh um pelletizing facility that will result uh from these conversations. There'll be communities that say we desperately need uh Merrill Bros to be a part of what's what our solutions are for uh the sanitation uh struggles that we're having, and that we get to be a part of that. So we're uh just so grateful for um for our marketing team and all that they did in preparing for that, all the people that were part of setting up and tearing down the people that will be there from our company. Uh we pray for safety for all of them as they go back and forth and for uh uh supernatural conversations all this week. So we're grateful for all of that in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00Father, first and foremost, I just want to thank you for hearing our prayers. Amen. All throughout scripture it says you heard you heard the cries of your people. And so we have a lot of folks going through some pretty major things right now. Even uh some of our listeners are are thinking right now, I'm I'm really going through it, and I just need someone to listen. And I don't know what to do. And God, I just pray that they would take this opportunity to just stop and pray to you right now for the things that they're struggling with, the things that are happening in their lives that they feel like they have no where or no one to turn to. God, but you're always there listening. And I pray that they would just stop and just pray to you right now, just as we are today. I pray for those in our our company that uh this morning and throughout this past week that have um asked for prayer for things that they're going through. God, you know who they are, you know the situations, and so we're just praying that you continue to uh just answer those prayers for them. We thank you for all the prayers that you have answered. It was very evident this past week that you answered prayer specifically for one of our drivers as he was driving, and so we're just so thankful for that. Uh-huh. God, and we just thank you that you have given us an opportunity here to serve others, and we can put on that towel, and your son just led by example, and that he had the most authority anyone on earth has ever had, and he yet he put on a towel to wash his disciples' feet. And I pray that we would take those opportunities this week to put on that towel and serve others. We pray all the time that you would just help us in situations or that we would have opportunities to do certain things, or we always pray that um someone else would do something to help, and uh you have given us the the means to do that. And so I pray that we would uh listen to the Holy Spirit's push on our lives and uh just pick up that tau and serve. It doesn't have to be a huge thing either, God. It can be something small. Uh you continually put things in front of us. Uh I pray that we would just answer that call and do and serve. Thank you, God, for how you provide for us each day. Thank you for listening to our prayers and answering. Pray all this in your son's name. Amen. Amen.
unknownAmen.
SPEAKER_01Well, we'd love to pray for you as well. So make sure you go to Merrillbrose.com, click the prayer tab at the top of the page, and uh that will give us an opportunity to join you in praying. Again, thanks for joining us for another episode of Solid Start. Keep growing, keep encouraging, and keep making a difference by picking up the towel of serving. Have a great day.