Last weekend, our church held our first "Serve Day." Instead of the normal weekend service, we ventured into our community to serve people. A few teams painted, while others did yard work or repairs. One led a hymn-sing at a nursing home. Another made and served brunch to workers at the 911 call center. Our church has modest attendance, but we had a high participation rate across the 22 different projects.

I guarantee we won't remember the variety of work that happened. The names and faces of those we served, though, will last a long time.

Especially John.

He's the older man whose house we painted. I served on the team that changed the appearance of the walls and ceilings in John's living room, den, and bathroom. In only two hours, fifteen of us completed the amount of work that typically takes me all summer to finish. Do the math if you wish, still seemed like a miracle to me. And to John.

Before you assume that our team included skilled painters who can work quickly, you should know that ...