A Message Worth Sharing

Words to Ponder …A Message Worth Sharing … Morrow Mirror … January 26, 2014

A religious woman upon waking up each morning would open her front door stand on the porch and scream, "Praise the Lord." 

This infuriated her atheist neighbor who would always make sure to counter back, "there is no Lord." 

One morning the atheist neighbor overheard his neighbor praying for food. Thinking it would be funny, he went and bought her all sorts of groceries and left them on her porch.

The next morning the lady screamed, "Praise the Lord, who gave me this food." The neighbor, laughing so hard he could barely get the words out, screamed "it wasn't the Lord, it was me."

The lady without missing a beat screamed, "Praise the Lord for not only giving me food but making the atheist pay for it!" (http://www.homileticsonline.com, January-February, 2014)

God is bigger then our faith or lack of faith. God can and does use all people to bring about His goal for creation, so we should not be surprised when God uses an atheist to help a faithful servant to get something to eat. 

Penn Jillette, the atheist illusionist and comedian, has said: "I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward. ... How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"

(Penn Jillette gets a gift of a Bible," YouTube, August 9, 2009, youtube.com)

Jillette’s words remind me of the commencement speech the Dali Lama gave at Emory University May 1998. I do not remember his exact words, but the gist of what he said was, “regardless of your faith live it. If you are a Buddhist live it, a Hindu live it, or a Christian live it.” Others should not be surprised to hear we are Christian, they should know it by our actions as well as by the words we speak.  If we do not share our faith we are not being faithful to the Gospel! I am NOT saying, beat people up with the Gospel; the Dali Lama made a point to say that sharing our faith is not about condemning others for not believing as we do. It is about sharing with a passion what we believe and being open to hear stories of faith from those who believe differently.  We should not fret if the world refuses to jump in the boat with us, but neither should we cast them out of the boat. 

I believe Jesus died so that we might have eternal life and this is a message not only worth sharing, it is a message the world needs to hear. If those who live in darkness shun the light, it is not our place to force it upon them. It is our calling to trust in the One who carries the light as we pray for those in darkness.

May the Light of Christ Shine on you today and always. 

In Christian Love, Dr. Ed Judy