GIVING IT AWAY...
Have you ever tried to give something away for free? Doesn't sound all that hard, does it? Well, you might be surprised!
On a crispy-cold, brilliant Saturday afternoon in December, I, and several others, positioned ourselves outside of the local "No Frills". The parking lot was packed. The grocery store was a beehive of activity. People were stocking up for the holidays, so you would have thought that everyone would have had a smile on their faces to accompany their weather-induced rosy cheeks. Such was not the case, nor the norm. In fact, I think that, by a few of the peoples' reactions, they were stalkers rather than stocking uppers!
Now, what exactly were we giving away? We were giving away candy canes and invitations to our community Christmas Carol service. As the candy canes were being handed out, there were also a goodly number of us singing Christmas Carols. We had a blast! It was great to sing praises to God in such a busy, everyday place. As we sang, I imagined that we had a lot in common with the angels that first Christmas as they started humming a few Heavenly bars to the hard-working shepherds: we, like the angels, were a thrust of the heavenly into the mundane. And, if I do say so myself, we sounded pretty good while we were doing it! We might not have measured up to the Heavenly Chorus, but we were better than someone beating cats against a brick wall. Having said that, I do have to admit that, toward the end of our three-hour tour, our voices got a bit shipwrecked. As a result, a couple of our doggy friends, who had been tied up outside of the store, started to howl their disapproval. There's nothing worse than canine critics! Maybe we sounded more like cats than memory, or pride, serves me to recall.
But, what I really found interesting during our "hairy-carolling" was the people's reactions. Many walked quickly by, uninterested, or perhaps even a bit hostile to our intrudence into their lives: they pushed by the free candy canes like we were trying to sell them flowers at an airport. Others reluctantly took the gift and invitations, but only hesitated as briefly as possible. Some saw us from the parking lot and took a wide berth around us with their imaginary ten-foot-poles. Others had the football approach, you know, head down, shoulders locked, ready to "take out" anyone who got in their way. Still, there were a few who thanked us for the candy canes and the invitations. They actually were thankful that someone gave them a freebee! There were fewer still who actually stopped and listened to us for a while (except for the dogs). Finally, one person stopped and joined in with our singing: one person out of the several hundred who had gone by.
What did I learn from this carolling,
or is that "harrowing",
experience?
First, I was reminded, once again, about how wonderful it is to share the truth about Christ! Christmas carolling, in the way we were doing it, with the songs we were singing, was a wonderful tool to very clearly share the gospel message. It felt great to be sharing the gospel, and worshipping our Saviour, outside of the walls of our church building and in the midst of the marketplace. Nothing else brings more joy to a Christian's soul than witnessing to others about the love of God! If you have never experienced that kind of joy, perhaps it's time you did.
The second thing I learned is that people will respond to the Gospel in the same way they responded to our free offer of a seasonally sweet snack. Sadly, many people are just too busy, too sceptical, and too cynical to receive a free gift. These people learned a long time ago that the word "FREE' always has strings attached to it in the fine print. Others have their own agenda and they just don't want their lives interrupted. Some will stop and listen, and then a few will even join in the singing of the Gospel.
The Good News about Jesus' coming and then dying for our sins; the Good News about forgiveness and new life as a free gift and not something that is earned, is just too good to be true for many people. And, you know what, I understand that kind of thinking. It's absolutely true. No one gives such a wonderful, powerful, precious gift away without fine print messing up the deal somewhere. No one that is, except for our Heavenly Father. Take it from me, there is one gift that is too good to be true, but it is true. In fact, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).
The last thing I pondered that Saturday afternoon was that it didn't matter what kind of response we got from people. That really wasn't my concern, although I do have to admit that a few people were so anti-social that I got a bit ticked. Still, we were doing our part. We were singing the Heavenly melody and people responded to it in their own way. The important thing was that we cared enough to sing in the first place!
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