ARE YOU "SHARING"?
One of the most stirring indictments on the church ever penned was made by Charles Schultz many years ago. Snoopy is shivering out in a snowstorm beside an empty food dish. He was looking longingly, expectantly, toward the house. Lucy came out and said, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled!" And then she turned and went back into the house and slammed the door. In the last frame you saw a confused Snoopy looking toward the house, shivering and hungry and utterly baffled.
To make known the love of Christ takes more than words -- it takes action; it entails results. Sharing the love of Christ with others involves sacrifice on our part. Are you "annoyed" by those people who buttonhole you on the street, or at a party, or in the middle of your workday to "share" with you--either their failures or their faith?-- It's probably because they aren't "sharing" at all. They may be gossiping. They may be foisting. They may be dumping or unloading. They may even be exhorting. But they are not sharing.
Lucy didn't "share" anything with poor, shivering Snoopy. She did not have to sacrifice any of her time, her money, her space, her heart, her feelings or her needs in order to make that speech. And she did not sacrifice anything to meet Snoopy's needs. To make the love of Christ known genuinely, to proclaim that love to the world accurately, means we must "rebound" Christ's sacrificial nature in our own lives.
We rebound love when we volunteer our most precious commodity, time, to help clean up a neighborhood park. We rebound love when we donate the funds we would have lavished on ourselves for Christmas to the "Lottie Moon" offering, or a small and struggling mission. We rebound love when we give our favorite foods, diapers and formula, and some special goodies, instead of those cans of food that have been in the closet for years, to the local food pantry. We rebound love when we turn off the computer and pick up our crying child, even though it will mean staying up late that night working in order to finish a job.