True confession time. If I pull into a drive thru and there are two lanes taking orders, I always (as in 100% of the time) contemplate leaving the establishment. Seriously. It does not matter if I’m thirsty, if I’m hungry, if I lack caffeine or even if I have screaming children in the back seat. I despise the two-lane drive-thru concept.
Inevitably, someone doesn’t understand the zipper concept and cuts into line ahead of the other lane. At the window, chaos ensues due to the cars being out of order. It happened today when the lady in front of us ended it with our son’s chicken nuggets and our bag held her child’s cheese burgers without onion.
I understand that the two-lane ordering assists with quicker service, but I still dislike the process. I wish there was a green-yellow-red light for the merging part of ordering.
While I wish there was a green-yellow-red light at the drive thru, we often use the green-yellow-red thought process when it comes to sharing the Gospel. We may use yellow as a caution (or red as an out-right stop) that the person isn’t ready to hear the Gospel. We think they may not be ready, so we decline to fulfill our portion of the Great Commission. Perhaps a better approach would be to assume that everyone is a green light and start sharing with everyone.
Like the merging of two lanes requiring patience and a little intuition, the sharing of the Gospel also requires both. The patience needed when sharing God’s love with the world is most often seen when presenting the Good News repeatedly to the same person or groups of people. We may get frustrated that they don’t “merge into their lane at the right time” when in reality, God has their hearts ready at His time.
In Matthew 28:19 (NASB), we read the following command, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
God said, “Go…” He didn’t say, “convince them” or “argue with them” or “brow beat them.” He simply said, “Go.” We can rest assured that our God is going to take care of the rest.
If we approach the unbelievers in our friend circles, in our workplaces, and even in the grocery store, as though they are a Green-Light, we will have accomplished the “Go.” God will handle the rest.
The merging of two lanes into one at a drive thru will likely always cause me grief. But that merging of believers “going” with God’s “doing” will create an eternity filled with sinners who heard the Gospel and believed.
This week let’s strive to be the green light and Go!
~Emily
Iron Porch 