Let’s talk about Mary. I don’t mean Mary the mother of Jesus or Mary Magdalene. I’m talking about Mary from the factory. You see, a long, long time ago, in a land far, far away, I worked in a factory with a woman named Mary.
At the time, I was young and single and Mary was older. What seemed really old at the time. She had three children who were high school, and college-aged. As we worked side by side, she couldn’t help but tell me about her children. Her son’s minor league baseball tryouts. Her daughter’s swim meets. On and on. Some days I would think to myself, “Come on lady, get a life. Don’t you have something else to talk about?” She was undaunted. Pretty soon, I felt like I knew her children. Later, when I had my own children, I understood. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a life. It was simply that I now had something in my life that I couldn’t help telling people about.
When I was older with a family of my own, like my friend Mary, I’m guessing that I told people about my kids even when they didn’t want to hear about it. I was simply compelled. I couldn’t help myself. I wasn’t afraid to offend them because I couldn’t contain the urge to share with them. We often do the same thing with our sports teams, our favorite shows, our choice in political positions, and on and on. When things are important to us, we can’t help but to talk about them. Unfortunately, it isn’t always the same with sharing our faith, is it?
Paul says something interesting when he writes to the Corinthian church, “For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16). While most of us feel that our relationship with Jesus is important to us, I wonder if we feel compelled to tell others about Him. That is certainly how my friend Mary felt about her family. She just couldn’t help herself. She had to tell me about them.
When Paul uses the word “compelled” we might think “forced”, almost dragged while kicking and screaming. But this compelling is based on an irresistible desire. I just can’t help but do it. I’m certain that Paul’s drive, his compelling, to share the gospel was centered around his own conversion. He has a sense of overwhelming gratitude. He writes, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Tim 1:15) He understood full well that he didn’t deserve anything that he received from God. He did not deserve God’s grace, or His mercy, and certainly not His forgiveness.
While I haven’t persecuted Christians like Paul, am I really that much different? Are you much different? God’s measuring system is not a gradient of good and bad. Shades of gray on a continuum. Big sins and little sins. In God’s system, there is only the light and the darkness. The two can never be mixed. “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 Jhn 1:15). In human terms, we may see Paul’s sins as bigger than ours. In reality though, my sins are just as great because they separate me from God.
Even though my sins are not specifically the same as Paul’s, I was once just as far away from God as he was. Every thought that wasn’t pure. Every action that was wrong, big or small. Even every good thing done with the wrong motivation. They all separated me from God. So, like Paul, my gratitude, because of what God has done for me, in spite of myself, should compel me to tell others about Him.
So, sometimes I think about my friend Mary who just couldn’t help but share about her family. She was simply compelled. When I think of her, I have to ask myself, “do I have that same drive, that compelling, to share with others about what is really important?” Sure, talking about my family is easy. My wife, my kids, my grandkids, I love to talk about them. And yes, I can easily fall into a discussion about politics or sports. Nothing wrong with that. But what about the one thing that can help people more than any of those? Am I as willing and ready, am I compelled, to tell others about Jesus and what He did for me?
My friend Mary just couldn’t help herself. She had to talk about her family. Why? Simply because she loved them so much. For you and me, I pray for the courage, the boldness, the compelling even, that when we are in the position of “I can’t help myself”, when we can’t help but talk about something, that the “something” will include Jesus and what He has done for us.
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