The office where I work likes to celebrate Birthday’s, weddings, babies, and other milestones. Let me rephrase that; the offices I work in. I work in a building where I support several different areas.  The most recent celebration was a baby shower to which I signed up for a veggie tray. I normally go out and find lots of good-looking veggies and make the tray up the night before. This week was a very busy week with meetings and deadlines, so I put a reminder on my calendar two days before and the day before to go buy my produce.

The day before the event, one of my meetings ended much earlier than expected so I utilized the time to run out to the grocery store nearby and pick up a pre-made tray. This is not normally what I would do, but this would make life so much easier. After choosing the best-looking tray and picking up other goodies, I started to make my way to the register. I saw a bin with snacks and decided to grab a few to keep in my desk for those afternoon cravings. I saw a plastic container of dark chocolate-covered banana chips. My first instinct was to pass them by because I don’t like banana chips, but I threw caution to the wind and threw them in my basket. After checking out, I hurried to my car to get back to my office for the next meeting.

While in the car, at a stop light, my curiosity got the best of me, and I broke into the banana chips. To say I was pleasantly surprised is like saying a rainbow looks nice. No, these chips were amazing!  I knew chocolate could make things taste good, but dark chocolate can make banana chips exquisite. I think I ate 5 of them on the spot before putting them out of my sight and continuing back to work.

When I returned to my office, I put the veggies away. I was getting ready to go tell the team where everything was in case something came up and I got busy the next day. I decided to bring my banana chips, excited to share this delightful treasure with others. I mean, I was truly excited to share this new find, to the point of being giddy. Before I could get out of my office, this voice popped in my head that said, “too bad you aren’t that excited to share Jesus with others”. I stopped for a second and sobered up from my chocolatey bliss. It was true; I share really yummy finds with others, I share good books and good movies, I share funny stories, so why don’t I feel comfortable sharing the gospel?  I’m not suggesting that I should run through my office pods and stop at every desk asking, “did you hear the good news of the gospel”, but Paul probably would have. In fact, he kind of did, only he didn’t have modern day offices. He went through towns, took ships across the ocean, talked to prison guards, and wrote letters to churches.

I may not be Paul, but it would be nice if I was more prepared and listened to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to lead me.  It doesn’t have to be a grandiose speech, it could be as simple as sharing that my faith gets me through hard times, or when marveling at the beautiful sky, stating how blessed we are to see God’s creation. I can say that I will pray for someone when they share bad news. We are called to share the good news. We are told to always have an answer when people ask us where our joy comes from. I need to practice this and get more prepared. So next time I share chocolate covered banana chips, perhaps I can say “try these banana chips, I’m so thankful God gave us tastebuds to enjoy our food”. Thoughts?