Electricity

Dear Friends,

In my early days of youth ministry one of our “go to” games was a simple relay called “electricity”. Young people would sit in two lines on the floor, holding hands behind their backs. The chosen soul at the end of each line would watch a coin toss. If it was heads they squeezed the hand of the person next to them. This lucky guy would pass it on, as quickly as possible, trying to get the “electricity” to the end of the line faster than the other team.

Kids loved it – mostly because it was a legal way to hold hands with someone you didn’t even know. I was always fascinated at the speed which the signal traveled. Information could touch a whole line of people in just a few seconds – if you could just get it to the person next to you.

The gospel is like that. Often the fastest way to reach someone far away is to start with the person next to you. So when my son Caleb headed out the door on Saturday to meet a classmate whose girlfriend had just broken up with him, I called out after him – “Remember to share the gospel!”

He did. His buddy had never read the Bible, and thought Karma and prayer were all part of the same thing – thinking out loud that something spiritual might make him feel better. Caleb told him about God’s love, about Jesus and sin, about inner rebirth that comes through faith in Christ. “That’s amazing!” his friend said, asking all kinds of insightful questions.

Like so many in Eastern Europe, no one in his extended family was a believer. He was hearing the Good News for the first time.

“This is so important”, he exclaimed at the end. “Everyone in the world should know what you just told me!” And he was right.

You and I are the chosen souls at the end of the line. Let’s pass it on.