Gatekeepers

“The four chief gatekeepers, all Levites, were trusted officials, for they were responsible for the rooms and the treasuries at the house of God. They would spend the night around the house of God, since it was their duty to guard it and to open the gates every morning.” (I Chronicles 9:26-27)

Food For Thought: Let’s hear it for the gatekeepers! Today we probably call them church custodians. They are the unsung heroes who don’t get much recognition—unless something goes wrong. They guard the house of God. They prepare it for worship. They unlock the doors for services and batten down the hatches when everybody else abandons ship and heads for home at the end of the day. They make sure the temperature is just right—although in my experience, the gatekeepers will never achieve that lofty ideal. They make sure the restrooms are presentable and keep all the light bulbs working. Their work really never ends.

They are truly heroes of the faith—but they don’t get credit for it. They are mostly unnoticed, underappreciated, and probably underpaid. But they did make it into God’s bulletin—they got listed in I Chronicles 9 along with the star quarterback and the wide-receivers—i.e., the priests and tribal leaders. They were the gatekeepers, and they were “trusted officials.”

I’ve been in church all my life—I cut my teeth on the backs of the pews, even carved my initials in one—and all my adult life has been in vocational ministry. And in each of the churches that I’ve been a part of, the “Gatekeepers” played a significant, but underappreciated roll in the ministry of those houses of God. And I have to confess, I don’t think I did a proper job of appreciating them.

So here’s what I’d suggest: This week, write a note to the “gatekeeper” of your church, and tell him or her how much you appreciate them and value the work they do to prepare God’s house so that you might enjoy worship. Perhaps you can take it a step further and take them out to lunch or buy them an appreciation gift. And make it a regular practice—they deserve it. Oh, and one more thing: Encourage others in your fellowship to do the same…and by all means, teach your children to show respect for them.

Prayer: Lord, I want to acknowledge the scores of people throughout my life that have served as gatekeepers in your house. Most of them have been behind-the-scenes type people, and I am not sure I ever remember any one of them ever being singled out for special appreciation. I pray that you will honor each one in some tangible way. I ask for blessings to be poured out upon them and that deep within their spirit they will sense your love and affirmation. And Lord, the ones who are in my life currently serving as gatekeepers, I will commit before you in this moment that I will do something to show my appreciation for their labor of love.

One more thing… Albert Einstein said, “A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”