Invitation to a Smile
“I should do that!”
On my routine walks, there is a place where a concrete boardwalk stretches across a grassy and sometimes swampy meadow. On occasion, water floods the meadow and comes over the walkway. When this happens, the only path forward is the raised concrete curbs on either side. Though the risk of soaking my feet with a misstep is always there, I am usually too stubborn to turn back. As a safeguard, I usually walk that balance beam even when it’s dry. As they say, practice makes…better. Not to mention, it’s kinda fun. Whimsical for a mostly bald, forty-three-year-old man to walk a balance beam like a child.
The other day I was walking the curb when I heard a cheerful voice, “I should do that!”
I looked up and saw a small white-haired woman stepping up onto the opposite curb with her arms stretched out.
“What fun!” she said. “Good for my balance.”
We stopped and talked for a while. She told me about growing up in Florida and seeing gators on golf courses. She talked about her favorite golfer, Bubba Watson. I heard about her work on military bases in her younger days. Then we each continued on our way. Me balancing on one side, her on the other.
At that moment, my whimsy became her invitation. My witness became her wonder.
I did not think I was doing anything important when I stepped onto that curb. There was no plan to perform or agenda to accomplish. I was simply living in the joy of the moment. This unnamed woman (I still regret not asking) saw something in this snapshot of my life she liked and took it as an invitation to join.
To turn it around, her willingness to join me in my silliness became an invitation to me as well. An invitation to slow down on my walk and share this moment. So glad I accepted that invitation. It would have been easy to simply smile and pass by, but by stopping, I grew richer. Shared invitations made us both smile a little brighter that day.
As one who follows Jesus, I carry with me the greatest cause for joy, hope, and love known to man. This moment made me wonder, “Do I live my faith as visibly as my whimsy?” Do people walking by my life see the joy I have because God loved me so much his son gave his life? Would those closest to me be able to see the hope shine if I never talked about Jesus?
but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
1 Peter 3:15 CSB
Peter is writing to people in a scary place. And yet he writes with an assumption, that because they are known by Jesus, they have a hope that still shines through. A hope so remarkable, that it will prompt questions. A hope that invites others to join in.
I have never lived through persecution, I have not suffered for my faith as those Peter wrote to. So what stops me from living with the hope inside me shining through in a way that causes people to pause and join in? There is no question, life is hard sometimes. We always have reasons to set our minds to the things which discourage us. Fear, worry, struggle are all very real and present in every life. Let’s not pretend otherwise.
The awesome truth is that it is in those seasons that our hope shines all the brighter. It is in our sorrow that the joy of the Lord is most remarkable. Seasons of uncertainty give wings to faith. When in the midst of grief we can still hop onto a curb and be reminded that we are loved by the God of Heaven, our hope becomes an invitation to the world to come and join us.