Last
week my wife, Janae, and I took our 2 boys, Joshua(4) & Reid(1), to Disneyworld and we had an amazing time. We know a number of people who had been in
the past, but this was the first time for us as a family. Based on what we had been told we had very
high expectations in terms of guest service (especially in terms of doing
anything possible to accommodate guests when needs/concerns/problems arise),
the attitude of employees while doing their job, and a general desire of all employees
to create an enjoyable stay for all guests.
We did the full service stay: we stayed in a Disney resort, used the
meal plan, and went to all the parks; so, during our stay we came into direct
contact with at least a couple hundred employees and cast members, probably
even more than that. Of all the hundreds
of people we came into contact with during the week we only had two people that
didn’t meet up with the expectations we had for our experience. To only have 2 sub-par encounters out of so
many excellent encounters is a testament to the way Disney trains and values
their employees. It is also testament to
the level of belief in the product that 99.9% of Disney employees seem to have
and actually, even more than all of that, it is a testament to the level of ownership
that exists in the hearts of the employees of this monster company known as
Disney…and its all for a Mouse?
The
reason I am writing about our experience in Disneyworld is because as I was driving
the long drive home to Northeast Georgia I couldn’t help but wonder: “If people will believe, buy-in,
and take ownership in a company with that level of commitment day-in and
day-out…with such a tiny number of sub-par employees (who probably don’t last
very long anyway)…for what all comes down to a paycheck; why do we as
Christians find it so hard to give that kind of commitment to our Lord and God
and the Mission and Vision of His Church? Why is it that the Church and Christians as a
whole have acquired a reputation that turns people away, that is labeled as
hypocritical, and in some cases that even repulses people? If people at Disney who are simply working
for a paycheck can have that kind of belief and ownership in a temporary
company that will one day cease to exist; why is it that those of us who believe
ourselves to be saved from an eternity of pain and torment in hell and saved to
an eternity in heaven with the one who sacrificed himself on our behalf can’t
have at least that same level of belief and ownership? Truthfully, we should be outdoing Disney!! We have something far greater than wishing
upon a star!! We don’t have to wish for
our dreams to come true; we know THE REAL TRUTH!! If we believe in Jesus as Savior and are
continually being transformed in all areas of our lives to be more like Him our eternity is set. We don’t need to wish, we know our
eternity is secure!!
Please
don’t misunderstand; I loved every minute of my time at Disneyworld
with my family. They do an amazing job
there. Our boys had a BLAST and Janae
and I had a BLAST watching them. We will
go back…we will return to that magical land in central Florida.
But my prayer is that all of us who call ourselves Christians can come
to realize that if we are to fulfill the mission given to us by God we need to
buy-in, we need to believe, we need to take OWNERSHIP that as Christians we
exist to “lead others to a life-changing connection with Jesus” and “we
are a church that is on a relentless pursuit of people where they are.”
