A few days ago, George and Lu Sigalas, a husband and wife and members of our church invited my family to spend 4th of July with them in the hills of San Jose, California. We accept promptly. I was thinking, free food a swimming pool and a magnificent view for the fireworks later that evening.

We made it up the mountain and began to mingle  with the people at the house. George and Lu introduced his nephew and his wife the owners of the house in the hills. The kids jumped into the pool and my wife and I began checking out the finger foods on the tables.

While we stood there a gentleman came over and got a plate of meatballs, he said hi and went back to his seat. A few minutes later he came back and got another plate. At this time we realized the  meatballs must have been really good. So we went over and got some too.

While we stood around talking this gentleman reached out and introduced himself as Michael. I didn’t realize that I had just met Michael T. Jones  the founder of Google Earth. ‘The’ Google Earth, which currently has a billion users.

We continued talking and another gentleman joined the group. At this time Michael’s wife said, “tell them the story about Reuben,”  speaking of the guy who had just joined the group.

So Michael began to tell the story of how they hired this guy. They decided to hire one or more of any users of google earth. But they were going to look for the person who was most helpful in the google earth community of users. That person who took the time to explain how things worked, that person who was always helping others to understand, that person who went the extra mile to answer questions that other users had. Reuben stood out of the crowd and he was hired in just a short time.

The Bible calls and encourages us to “use our gifts and talents to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” We are called and encouraged to give freely of ourselves, because to “whom much is given, much is required.” When we avail ourselves to be of service to others, we actually make way for ourselves. The Bible says, “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before the great.” For Reuben, this became a reality simply by using his gifts for the benefit of others.

You may not get a job offer from google today, but God is in the business of setting us up with just what is necessary for us to get to that place where we need to be. Keep serving others. Keep putting others first. Keep using your gifts to bless others. You never know when God will open a door for you.

Let’s start a volunteer revolution.