When raising children, it’s very easy to let toys accumulate (like the Legos that are still in one of our storage baskets above). As kids outgrow their favorite playthings, the action figures and blocks and dolls make their way into closets or other storage facilities because, many times, parents don’t want to admit that their children are getting older! Eventually, though, it’s time to face the fact that closets only have so much room.
My wife and I have sometimes asked our kids if they still wanted certain toys and sometimes they were fine with giving them away, but other times, they would protest. Even though they hadn’t played with something for months (years?), they couldn’t bear not having (insert name of toy) around. So we’d save the toy and it would go back in the closet, never to be played with for another extended amount of time.
Christians can fall into that same trap with the gospel. This good news is something that is treasured and interacted with when one first experiences it, but it eventually it gets moved aside for a newer, shinier experience. The Christian doesn’t want to throw the gospel out–there are still fond memories–but it seems to have lost its relevance.
We’re starting a sermon series at Urban Village this Sunday about evangelism and how to share one’s faith, but before we get into the how of that, it’s important to remember what it is you’re sharing. N.T. Wright reminds readers in his book, “Simply Good News,” that the gospel is not good advice, but good news. Life-changing, life-saving news. Wright writes that the apostle Paul believed something significant happened to those who heard and received the gospel: “It refreshes them. It energizes them. Sometimes it even heals them of bodily ailments. They find, welling up inside, a sense of astonishment, of being loved. It’s like what would happen to someone who had been profoundly deaf from birth and then, straight after a successful operation, heard the opening of a Mozart symphony.”
Spend some time this week remembering a time when the power of this good news changed you, made a distinct difference, overwhelmed you to a point where you thought, “I have got to share this with somebody.” Imagine someone asking you, “Do you still need the gospel? Or have you outgrown it?” My prayer is that a childlike joy takes hold and our response comes from the classic and well-loved gospel: “Hide it under a bushel? No! I’m going to let it shine.”