Sitting in PCJ (Port City java) this morning, I was fascinated. The barister (person who makes the coffee) was telling everyone that “I’ve got a new car! I’m so excited!” I heard her describing the process to every customer that walked in. Unashamedly. Proudly. Pointing it out to folks, telling them it was sitting on the backside of the parking lot so “no one would ding it.”
“It has child-safe seats…I now have a big car payment…it’s an ’03 SUV…” She repeated the same thing, over and over again. I heard it so many times I felt like I had bought the car!
Several were not interested. All expressed a “congratulations.” Several wanted more details.
We’re all like that. Something new, big, exciting drops into our lives and we just have to tell everyone, even if they could care less. We may not be as excited as the barister was this morning, but excited we can be — and we express it.
Of course that got me to ruminating . . .
What is it that our faith doesn’t have? Why doesn’t it bring about this same response in us? Ever thought about that? We are basically rather “ashamed” of our belief in this Jesus fellow, aren’t we? The idea of telling friends or strangers about it makes us feel rather vomitous (is that a word?) and we avoid it as though it were genital herpes.
Could it be that this faith of ours really isn’t? Or could it be that we really don’t understand the implications of it?
Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.”
—Luke 11:35-36
ru·mi·na·tions 
