Teachable Moments (Guest Post by Trevor Ashe)

Don't you just love when something just "happens" to be thrown on your plate at the last minute. I had an experience like that this past week.

So Saturday on my way out of the store, I was "reminded" that we had an all store meeting on Sunday morning. I'll be honest, my first thought was to say sorry cant make it, I have better plans. Then I realized how sweet it would be to get paid for doing no work, eating breakfast, and just hanging out with fellow employees. No brainer in that context. So I told my managers I would be there and I'll see them in the morning.

Well on my way out of the store I was telling people good bye and I will see them in the morning and one of my friends asked me if I was really going to be there in the morning. I told them I certainly would. Then I get asked about if I was going to miss church for this meeting and I explained I would. She said, "I thought Christians had to go to church."

BAM!!! You hear that? That is a teachable moment knocking on the door. So I got the opportunity to explain to her that being a Christian is not just about going to church and marking things off on a never ending "spritiual check list." I told her that my faith is all about a relationship, and freedom from the check list.

As I am writing this, a picture of the "karma list" in the TV show My Name Is Earl just popped into my head. I dont know if any of you have ever seen the show but basically he is under the assumption that if he corrects every wrong doing in his life "karma" will be good to him and make his life better. But basically the more he fixes of his past, the more his list grows.
That's the mentality many people have about Christianity. That if we "fix" our lives or our past relationships with people, life will be better and we will win a spot in heaven.

In this one small moment with this young lady at my work I saw a new paradigm open up on her mind. She realized that faith is not a bunch of rules or things to do; rather its a way of living, a relationship that keeps evolving bringing you closer to the Holy Spirit. Granted, I do not know where she is in her spiritual walk, but it was really cool to see her eyes light up when I told her this simple truth about Christianity. Thats about it, just wanted to write a bit and share this pretty cool story.

Trev

PS. Sometimes the Lord might call us to "skip" church to be involved in the lives of people whom do not yet know him. Sounds like a Sunday morning mountain bike trip might be in my near future!