There are cookies!

About two or three years ago, a live action movie based on the Scooby Doo cartoons came out in which the lovable Great Dane and his mystery solving friends found themselves captive in the house of a mysterious man. There were other prisoners there as well as the front door had been booby trapped to capture anyone who rang the doorbell more than once. The first group the gang encountered was an enthusiastic troop of Girl Scouts who wanted to know if they wanted to buy some cookies. Next, they saw a pair of nicely dressed young men who asked them, “Have you heard the Good News?” Scooby responded happily, “Yeah! There are cookies!”

As I was driving home from our Wednesday night church service, this scene came to mind. Our pastor read from the book of 1 Timothy 2:1-7:

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we've learned: that there's one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth. (The Message)

In his message, he pointed out that we need to be taking the mission to share the Good News as seriously as Paul did. Specifically, Bill asked, “If we don’t tell other people, how do we know we truly believe it ourselves?”

Think about that. Think about all of the things that, in a given day, you DO tell other people. OK, I’ll confess. What do I tell other people in a given day?

I relate stories I heard on NPR on my commute. I explain my work to my boss. I explain to my employees how to do their work. I tell my kids that, yes, they will get their bath tonight because I am their mother and I said so. I tell my husband and my children that I love them.

And, folks, I gossip. Sometimes it is telling one coworker what another coworker said or did. Even worse, sometimes it is telling one coworker what another coworker said or did based on what a third coworker told me! (By the way, this is an issue for another day…but one God and I are working on daily.)

Now, do I honestly believe all of these things that I am using my mouth to pass on? I guess I do or I wouldn’t have taken the time to say them, right?

But, in my heart, I profess to believe the following more than any of these other things: I believe that Jesus was God walking on earth. I believe that Jesus died not just generally for the world’s sins, but specifically for MY SINS…sins that I had yet to contemplate when He was being nailed to the cross. I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that one day I will see Him face to face…my savior, my God, my One and Only.

In short, if I truly believe what I profess to believe, I need to be using my mouth to do more than tell people there are Girl Scout cookies available.