I have posted many times about how much I love my job, and the blessing I have of making so many new and wonderful friends because of it.  I actually enjoy the early morning hours (6:00 am opening time!) and love the feeling of helping so many people from all sorts of different backgrounds, economic positions, etc.  It’s a great life, and I wouldn’t be anywhere else.

HOWEVER.  There is one type of customer that I genuinely dislike serving…and I call them the “snatchers”.  Snatchers are those customers who literally do just that..snatch things out of my hand.  Money, debit cards, food, drinks, you name it – it gets snatched.  I am not talking about the occasional “I overslept and I am late” customer..I am talking about those that are usually on the phone, interrupting their very busy and important lives long enough to get food…but only if it is quick, very very quick!  Or they are just always in a hurry and/or impatient, and it seems as if I am never, ever fast enough for them.  I can’t count the times that food or drink has almost hit the ground after being snatched, or that change has been dropped.

So what bugs me so much about these guests?  It’s not what you might think.  Yes it’s rude, but it’s also this:  the customer and I both miss out!  I miss the opportunity to smile, thank them, and give them a more satisfying experience.  They miss the opportunity to breathe for a minute, recieve a kind word and a smile, and maybe drive off just a tiny bit happier.  It takes what is usually a very rewarding event and makes it just one more stressful moment in a stress filled day.

God spoke to me quite clearly about this the other day as I watched a snatcher drive off.  And what I heard totally floored me!  As much as I dislike them, I am a snatcher too!  Not physically, but spiritually.  Not with chicken and fries, but with the Bread of Life.  I too often approach my prayer time/Bible study time with the attitude of “let’s get this done”.  I quickly flip to a passage of Scripture, “snatch” a quick meaning from it, and move on.  Or I approach my prayer time with one eye on my watch and one on my prayer list, all the while aware not of God’s presence, but of the passing of time.  Or sit in church on Sunday morning hoping the speaker will just wrap it up? Sound familiar?

Spiritual snatchers also work in another way.  They are the ones who want all the stuff they need (lunch or breakfast) without having to slow down or interact with the one giving it to them (the cashier).  They want the blessings God wants to give them, but without all the messiness of giving anything of themselves in return.  They want their prayers answered, but don’t want to find out if their requests are in God’s will. Or in the worst cases, they want eternal life but not much else..they just don’t have time to grow in their faith or grow closer to the Lord.  Know anyone like that?

In contrast, my favorite customers are my regulars.  They are the ones I see all the time, and really get to know.  I know about their families, their achievements, their prayer needs, and their sorrows.  I can tell when they need a verbal ((hug)), and when they want to share something exciting.  I always look forward to seeing them, and I always try to bless them and lift them up just because they came.

If I care for my “people” like that, in all my humanness and failings, love them deeply, and want to help them and get to know them, how much more does GOD, our Creator and Redeemer, want that with us??  And how many times do we miss out on rich, deep and satisfying interactions with Him?  If you’re like me, the answer is too many times.  So the next time you’re in a hurry and tempted to snatch at a drive thru, stop…and then let God remind you of just how you’re doing spiritually!

I have learned a lot of interesting things working the drive thru window, and one of them is this:  the population is divided into two different groups…people who love pennies, and people who hate them.  The first group (which I am part of) saves pennies, rolls them, gets excited when they see one in the parking lot, and not only picks them up but will walk out of their way to do it.  They carefully place those penny rolls in a special place, watch them pile up, and think about the things they will do with them.

 The other group will bypass 10 pennies laying on the ground and not think a thing about it.  They will also give me extra pennies at the register and say something equivalent to “just keep’em, not worth the trouble.” Or they will laugh and take them and say that maybe they will be worth something one day, but they doubt it.  They are also the ones that would vote every time for pennies to be discontinued.

But guess what?  Pennies are the very foundation of our money system. Of course we have nickels, dimes and quarters, but pennies are where it all starts.  Got a nickel?  That’s 5 pennies.  Quarter?  At it’s root, that’s 25 pennies.  Ten dollars? 1,00o pennies.  No matter how large the sum, it can ALWAYS be taken back to an equivalent in pennies!  So whether you have 10,000 pennies rolled up at home or a one hundred dollar bill in your pocket, you still have $100.  And while a $100 bill may look more impressive, it’s only an illusion…you can knock it back down by taking away just one penny, and you no longer have a complete bill.  That just happens to be a profound truth for God’s Kingdom as well.

God’s plan for His will being accomplished on earth, especially in a local church family, is based on “pennies”…His children as they are saved, one by one, and brought into the church.  While individually they may not SEEM very important, each one is worth exactly the same as any other one. Exactly.  And while one “penny” may not think they are as valuable, they definitely are.  As is true with money, the more of them you have, the richer you are!  Richer in Spirit, in fellowship, and in ability to accomplish things.  Richer in all the gifts of the Spirit, which brings to the world a more complete picture of Christ.  

Unfortunately in a church there is also an illusion that a shiny nickel (instrumental worship team member) dime (worship leader) or quarter (preacher) is more valuable than the other mere “pennies” in the fellowship. They are the ones on the stage, in front, and their silver is usually very, very shiny.  Pennies make up a lot of the congregation, and they can begin to feel less important.  After all, they are surrounded by other pennies, and not everyone knows their name.  They don’t necessarily stand out or have a “big” role to play.

So to reset the perspective, let’s take a closer look at the nickel (instrumentalist).  It is equal to five pennies, and here they are: Penny One gave to the building fund so the sanctuary could be built.  Penny Two gave his tithe so the church could buy the keyboard.  Penny Three is the actual instrumentalist.  Penny Four is the technical whiz who keeps the instruments and sound boards in perfect order so music is made and heard.  And Penny Five is the one who comes to church and worships the Lord to the music!  Isn’t that awesome??  And you can use that illustration for the dime, quarter, etc!  

In other words, there is a place of service and impact for every person that God chooses to save and bring into His Kingdom. No “penny” is useless or less valuable; and if there is an illusion of that, it is not of God.  AND there is power in pennies!  When Kingdom “pennies” get rolled together and accumulate, there are great things they can accomplish for the glory of God, and they all enjoy the reward.  Aren’t you ready to get your penny power going??  

When I was growing up, 100 years ago (lol), life appeared to be a lot more simple.  We were in the pre-computer age when the newspapers ruled and missing the nightly news would put you way behind on current events. If there was any manipulation of what we read or heard, we didn’t know it.  And plagerism and false reporting were scandals, followed by immediate, grave consequences.  The only other truth twisting…gossip…was frowned on, but generally tolerated. It was a time when you could pretty much trust what you saw and heard.

Fast forward to today, and an open world.  Every kind of media, including social media, makes the world a small, small place where you can find out what’s going on in Japan or South Africa as easily as what’s going on in your own neighborhood.  Have a disease?  100 sites with info at your fingertips.  Something wrong with your car?  Same thing.  Sports scores from around the world, and many rebroadcasts of events at your disposal.  Want to learn to cook or sew?  Again, classes right online.  These have also all made the workd a great place to live in right now!

Unfortunately, there is also a dark side to the internet, and we all know about the things you csn find there.  The one thing, however, that very few people anticipated was the power of what was on the internet.  Many people never realized that viewers would take so much of what they read and believe it like it was absolute truth.  No one envisioned people dying because they trusted medical internet advice and stayed away from doctors because they thought they had the answer.  No one envisioned that hundreds if people would have their lives destroyed because of untruths posted about them.  And certainly NO ONE thought that teenagers would commit suicide over posts about them implying all kinds of untrue things!  And now we currently have a crisis of “fake news” that is catching people of all ages believing outright lies simply because it was on a site that “seemed” reliable!

What a mess!  But here’s the point of this blog…the first fake news ever happened over thousands of years ago.  Yep!  And it went like this:  “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said to the woman, has God indeed said ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’  Satan is reading the Garden Daily Times, he’s checking to see if Eve has too.

And Eve answers: “…but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’  And here’s what satan wants Eve to believe is the 2 inch headline for that day:  You will surely not die!  For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  And we know the rest of the story.

Amazing, isn’t it?  There is nothing man can dream up that is more false or dangerous than that first fake news..because that is the news that Eve believed, and all of humanity since then has suffered for it by being eternally separated from God, without the saving power of Jesus Christ!  There is nothing new about “fake news”!

Today’s alarms about fake news ARE important.  Believing even half of what you read or hear in media today can land you in all sorts of enbarrassment, trouble, strife, and even lead to fatalities…but eventually the perpetrators of that news are caught.  With satan, however, his fake news is way more deadly, and yet way less recognized by most people…and yet its consequences are far more destructive..they are ETERNAL if not realized by those who accept his message as real.

So next time you hear the topic of fake news in any of your conversations with friends, coworkers, etc, use it as an opportunity to evangelize!  Share with them about the Author of the Good News…Jesus Christ..and help them find their way to Him!

When you hear the words outreach or evangelism, what pops into your mind? Billy Graham and his organization and lots of money? Operation Christmas Child? Huge churches with mega resources?

While all of these are correct answers, so is the story you sre about to read below:

She is not one of the “favored” people in this world according to today’s society. Her face is square, her hair is a dull brown mullet style, and her eyeglasses are coke bottle thick. She is missing one or two side teeth, she rarely smiles, and she works very hard at a low-paying job. We’ll call her June.

When I first started waiting on her, she would drive up in her old beat up red truck, and not say two words to me. She always had a stern look on her face and would speed off with her food, which was usually only a butter biscuit. She did volunteer a complaint once or twice about the wait or how her biscuit tasted, but that was it.

This continued for almost 2 years, until just before Christmas when I had the overwhelming urge to buy her biscuit one day….a very small investment. As I told her that, she stared at me…and I just blurted out “early Merry Christmas!” She still stared and said “no one has ever done anything nice for me!” and she drove off. The next time she came, she said hello before I did, and after that we would occasionally also talk about the weather. Then finally the other day, I got the nerve up to ask her name, and she gave it to me. I began calling her by her first name, and giving a bigger smile each time. We even progressed to where she actually laughed two days ago.

And that’s where we’re at. No fireworks, no amazing testimony (yet), and no instant anything. AND YET! God is at work. A friendship is beginning, smiles have been exchanged, names are known, and what was not really an exciting experience for either one of us has become a day brightener for us both. Hopefully soon I can find out more about her family, and begin to deepen our bond. Is she ready for the entire Gospel yet? I’m not sure, but that’s not something I have to worry about. I am confident that God in His time will prompt me to share then. And I am praying for God to also begin to bring other people into her life that will positively impact her.

The point of this blog, however,is not what happens next. The point is just exactly what this evangelistic endeavor has cost to this point….ninety-five cents. Less than a dollar. That’s what a butter biscuit costs at Chickfila, and I’ve only bought hers one time. AND YET! Like the little boy with the five loaves and two fish in the Bible, God can do great things! Once she knows the true Lover of her soul, and becomes a child of His, there is a whole new group of people that she can reach that I may never meet. And if she does already know Him, then maybe just having a new sister in Christ will be what prompts her to grow in her faith and begin reaching out to others as well!

And all of that for ninety-five cents. As a very popular commercial asks, “what’s in your wallet??” And God further asks, “and what are you doing with it??” May He recieve all the glory as you begin to answer this question listen to His prompting!