Like mother like son ?

 I had hoped to have a story to tell you today about how I stepped out in faith and gave a word of knowledge to a complete stranger and then led them to the Lord.  But......   😁

After the last lockdown was eased ( who knows when that was??) I took the boys to McDonalds as they were suffering from withdrawal.  As we entered we were greeted by a young chap who was impeccably dressed and rather effeminate who showed us which table to sit at and asked if we needed help.  We didn't, and proceeded to order at the touch screen but the lady behind us was quite elderly and a bit confused by everything and I watched this young man take her to the screen and spend a good long time helping her and chatting to her and generally being a bit of a star.   As we were leaving he was busy being lovely to a different customer so I went up to the manager and told him that his greeter person was doing a brilliant job, going above and beyond.  Manager looked surprised and pleased and said he would bring it up at the next staff meeting.  

A couple of weeks later and I was in getting a coffee and same young man was on the door again.  I said to him '  Oh, I remember you'  and he immediately said ' Why?  Did I do something wrong?' and went bright red.  I smiled and told him that no he had been doing an excellent job.  He looked a bit stunned. I went on my merry way and didn't think anything more about it.

A new out-of-town Mcdonalds has opened in the past few weeks and Sam and I popped in there for lunch yesterday.  Lo and behold there was this same young guy on the door! As I sat down with my food, I had that overwhelming nagging in my spirit that this was more than a coincidence and that God wanted to say something to him.  Trouble is, I didn't know what He wanted to say!   There was a distinct lull in customers and I knew this was my chance.  I said to Sam that I thought I was meant to go and speak to the greeter, and Sam asked what I was going to say. ' Well, maybe just that God loves him and...'   at which point Sam launched into a theological diatribe about the fact that God doesn't love sinners , nowhere in the Bible does it say He does, God hates sin and cant have anything to do with sinners until they have had their sins covered by the blood of Jesus and only then can people come into a love relationship with Him.   Eeeeeek!  There followed a good hour long debate with much quoting of scripture which lasted way past our lunch, into the car, round more shops and half the way home.  Needless to say the Mcdonalds greeter didn't get his word from the Lord.

Driving past the new McDs today I decided to stop and see if he was there.  I still didn't know what I was going to say to him but my conversation with Sam had definitely made me think.  For all that Sam is incredibly zealous and quite hard line ( he has a prophetic motivation which makes him a rather black/white thinker and totally uncompromising) in some ways he was right.   Everything about me with my exhorting motivation wants to encourage and be kind and lovely.   But perhaps that approach might not actually show people what God is really like.   I do believe that He passionately loves people, but my tendency would always be to skirt around the issue of peoples sin and their need to repent, perhaps hoping that the next person who comes along will explain that bit 😀  I decided that if he was there I would be brave and say something perhaps a bit more ' whole gospel' than I might normally do in conversation with a complete stranger.   He wasn't working.  I came away feeling a bit sad that I didn't have a good story to tell you all on the blog. 😀

Lately Sam and I have had a lot of quite heated and rigorous debates about ' God stuff'.  He is 19 and has been going to a different church from the rest of us for a couple of years.  We are no longer the primary influences in his Christian life and he is definitely developing his own views and opinions.  I try to remember back to when I was his age and I know that I was so much more 'radical' ( and downright offensive!) then.  I had a passion for Jesus and just couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to follow Him.   I know that I bulldozed my way through various people's lives in a crass attempt to ' convert' them.  I see Sam being a bit like that and I inwardly cringe.  But on the other hand..... how fantastic to see him standing on his own feet, arguing his case with passion, being all out for the truth ( and thinking he knows exactly what that is 😀)  I recognise that my ' mellowing' over the years might also be seen as me ' losing my edge'.   Tricky isnt it?  The kingdom of God needs the young bucks who are unafraid and unapologetic.  And it also needs the old dears like me to come along behind and tend to the bruises they sometimes cause. 

I do hope I meet my young McDonalds greeter again.   If I do, I'll let you know what happens.