The 'Wow' Factor
Wes Wick
In our serving efforts and other contexts, we’ve noticed how the word ‘wow’ so often gets attached to age-spectrum highs and lows.
“She has such stage presence. Wow, she is so young!”
Or “Wow, can you believe what a great worker he still is at 88 years old?”
On our recent annual pilgrimage to Gleanings for the Hungry, our YES! team ranged in age from 54 to 88.
Albert Branker, an 88-year-old native of Trinidad now living in Sparks, Nevada, prompted wows from those serving with us at Gleanings.
He himself said he never would have imagined being able to serve so meaningfully at this life stage, and he’s already making plans to return next year, Lord willing.
Another Gleanings volunteer, Russ, is 101 and plans to return to his serving post again this month. Wow!
A couple young Asian families also served alongside us at Gleanings. Their young boys triggered more ‘wows’ with their servants’ hearts. They quickly volunteered to clean restrooms and worked diligently at other assigned tasks, too.
These serving standouts—kids seemingly too young to serve and elderly presumably too old to serve—have an inspiring ripple effect on the rest of us.
If Albert can still make it back to serve after the 3 PM break, why would I think I’m done for the day? Or, if these young kids can model such effervescent enthusiasm and strong work ethics, who am I to do otherwise?
We don’t serve to ‘wow’ others, but God can sure use willing hearts to help inspire.
Never underestimate the value of meaningfully engaging the very young and very old in serving. Don’t write them off … they have special capacity to motivate others.