Big Yellow Bus

I am not sure about you, but I really struggle when it comes to doing things with excellence. I would far rather put as little effort as possible into things hoping for a great outcome.

A few years ago my office was across the road from a school bus depot. From my window, I could see the buses leave in the morning and then come back a few hours later. Once the dirty buses arrived back to the lot, this employee would then go get the buses one by one and he would wash them. Now, keep in mind, a bus is not the size of a small compact car… these were your full-length yellow school buses. One by one he would spray them down, soap them up, then rinse them off. To be honest, I thought it was an effort that could have been done maybe once a week. Part of me thought, “the bus is going to get dirty again in a few hours, who cares?” I liken it to making the bed everyday; you are just going to get back into it that night, why make it? Who’s with me?

This employee left an impact on me, and I still think about it to this day. He washed those “Big Yellow Buses” every single day, and he seemed to do it with excellence every time. All day, five days a week he brought those buses back to shine.

You and I are probably not washing buses (or, if you are, good for you), but we are doing other things. We are working the assembly line, putting numbers into spreadsheets, raising children, doing homework. You can fill in the blank, but I ask, are you doing your thing with excellence each day? If you are a follower of Jesus, He asks us to live this way. He truly wants us to give our best in all that we do.

Next time you are tempted to put a half-effort into something, think about the “Big Yellow Bus”.

RB1 Corinthians 10:31