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Those who follow Jesus, at their best, are like those little pink sampler spoons at Baskin & Robbins.
We give people a taste of good things.
In his book Habitation of Dragons, author and retreat leader Keith Miller recounts a presentation he gave at a church in another state.
Miller had the distinct impression that his talk hadn’t been particularly inspiring. Just a few listeners stuck around afterwards.
Conscious that he needed to make his next connection at the airport, he quickly shook hands with those who approached him.
One of them was Joe, a stocky, middle-aged attorney with glasses and black, wavy hair.
He gripped Miller’s hand like a vise.
Joe admitted that an hour earlier he had been in the neighborhood to visit his mistress, but some friends had noticed him walking down the street and asked if he had come to hear Miller. Sheepishly, he decided to attend the presentation.
“I heard you speaking about a new start in life,” he said. “I had given up any hope of ever finding purpose, and was filled with self-pity.”
Miller, under pressure of time, didn’t know quite what to do. “Joe, would you like to turn your life over to God right now?” he asked.
“I sure would,” said Joe. In a brief prayer he confessed the bungling of his own life and asked God for a new beginning.
The two promised to stay in touch. Miller checked his watch. The whole conversation had lasted 12 minutes.
A year later, after the exchange of several letters, Joe begged Keith to visit his hometown in the Southwest, which had several thousand residents.
“A few people have been asking what’s happened to my life, and I don’t know how to explain it to them,” he wrote. “Would you be willing to come and talk to this group?”
It took a while for Miller to arrange his schedule. Joe met him at the airport and drove him to his church, where the little group of those curious about Joe’s life had gathered.
Miller will never forget walking into that church sanctuary and looking into the faces of more than 800 people – all of whom wanted to know why Joe was different.
Among Jesus’ many claims about his identity (“I am the Bread of Life,” “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” “I am the Good Shepherd”) one stands out as an identity he insists on sharing with all of his followers: “I am the Light of the World,” he says in John 8:12. Likewise, “You are the light of the world,” he declares to the Sermon on the Mount’s audience in Matthew 5:14.
The light that radiates from Jesus not only shines on us and in us. If we let it, it can shine right through us.
Are you wondering how your life might make an impact today?
Be a pink spoon. Choose to give away what God has poured into you.
By his grace, you can give someone else a taste of something good.