We hesitated at the church door….

Would people be friendly?

Were we dressed the right way?

Where should we go after we walked into the building?

My wife and I had moved from another state and were looking for a new church.

We found one only five minutes from our house…

Now we were standing outside its doors.

Taking a deep breath, we opened the doors and walked into the building…

We were met immediately by tables stacked high with welcome literature for visitors …

Maybe we should have noticed that we were met by stacks of printed material instead of lines of smiling people.

But we looked at the material and thought, “This church must be friendly to newcomers like us”.

Maybe God had guided us to the right church.

The minister started to speak…

“Good morning.  “I am your new pastor.”

“You may have noticed all the welcome material outside the sanctuary.”

“Many of you have already told me you are offended by the material…”

“The bishop sent me here for one reason. This church grew in its early days…”

“But then you made a conscious decision not to accept new members.”

“I am here to lead you in a new direction.”

Maybe we hadn’t found the right church after all.

We never went back.

When I think about that visit, I wonder…

Why is it so hard for us to share what we love most?

Why do we want to hoard God’s love…the one thing most created to be shared?

Why, like a two year old toddler, do we shout, “Mine!”…

When we could be shouting, “Over here!  Look what I found!”

“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.’”

Mark 16:15

I was pondering those deep thoughts the other day as I walked toward the kitchen counter…

The counter where the last piece of pecan pie called seductively to me…

“Vanilla Ice cream would be great with pecan pie.” I thought.

Just then my wife called from the family room, “Is there any pie left?”

Carefully, I put the last piece of pie on a plate.

I reached in a drawer for a fork…

And then I…

I will not tell you what I did with the last piece of pie.

I will leave it to you to imagine the end of this story…

Did I carry that plate into the family room and gallantly share it with my wife?

Or with my mouth full of pie, did I cry, “Mine!”?

Isn’t there a Bible verse about not hanging on to things?

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:38