September 19, 2006

[Rev. Doc]

Your Actions Are Showing

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
I John 3:18

Chuck Mistler shares:
A few years ago, we flew back to California late one Sunday night from a seminar in Washington State. Tired and hungry, we still had to face another one-hour drive home from the airport.

Trying to check out of the airport parking lot, we found at least 30 cars in the line ahead of us, moving very slowly. After sitting in the line for over 25 minutes, 10 or 15 cars from the very back of the line pulled out and went around the long line of waiting cars and tried to butt their way into the front of the line from the side aisles of the parking lot.

One big magenta truck jammed its way in front of us. We rolled down the window and politely said, "Please, you need to wait in line just like the rest of us." The man just laughed at us and jammed his big truck in front of us all the more. His kids were in the back of his truck and they, too, were laughing as he maneuvered his way in front of us.

To our complete disbelief, the man then stopped the whole line of cars behind him and let the 10 cars that had followed him, get into the line in front of him, adding another 10- to -15 minute wait for the rest of us. We were appalled that someone would be that self-centered and that rude. However, as we got closer to the lights and the checkout booth, we saw plastered clearly on the back of the big magenta truck, a Christian Ichthus (fish) symbol. We regret now that we didn’t get out of our car and say to the driver of the magenta truck, "Is this how a Christian acts?"

Prayer: Ask the Lord to help you exhibit the evidence of your Christian life in your interaction with others.

"Sometimes we don't need another chance to express how we feel or to ask someone to understand our situation. Sometimes we just need a firm kick in the pants. An unsmiling expectation that if we mean all these wonderful things we talk about and sing about, then lets see something to prove it."
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer