Sweet Tea Christians

     My family and I went out for dinner to celebrate my little brother's middle school graduation last night. Due to the fancy pants nature of the restaurant, I constantly had a waiter hovering over me ready to refill my iced tea anytime I took a single sip. I know his intentions were good, but my goodness that drives me crazy. If I had a list of pet peeves, this would be on it. You see, I have a system for sweetening my tea. The second you add more unsweetened tea to my already sweet glass, it throws off the whole thing!

     

     Ask anyone close to me, you do not mess with this girl's sweet tea. I am serious about that stuff. I have a life motto that I rarely share (because people will think I'm a little cray), "There are two things in this world that could never be too sweet: your tea and yourself." That being said, I have another thing that bothers me infinitely times more than refilling a half full glass of iced tea... not sweet people. Even more so, not sweet Christians. 

     

     You see, we as Christians are called to evangelize Christ to the world. It's not a job for a select few, it's a responsibility, a privilege, that we are all granted. But here's the issue - the way we work to fulfill that responsibility is sometimes the same way we fulfill our other (much less important) responsibilities. 

     Let's use an example to illustrate my point. Your boss asks you to market a new product. Naturally, you spend your entire 8-5 workday thinking of new and innovative ways to market that product. You alter your campaign depending on the age range of your audience. But then, at some point, maybe around 6:00pm when you've come home to your family, your efforts diminish. Maybe they don't cease completely, but you're definitely not as productive. Your priority is no longer that ad campaign. 

     We do this with evangelization. We rack our brains trying to come up with fancy ways to "sell Jesus" to those around us. We change our words and behavior depending on who we're interacting with. Our Sunday "work day" is over and we forget our task. We completely miss the point. Christ is love. You share Christ by simply being loving to those around you. Sure, this means those big showy acts of love like buying a meal for a homeless man, or visiting those in prison. But guess what, it also means being respectful to your parents, holding the door open for the stranger behind you, being friendly and affectionate to your spouse, not being snarky to your siblings, and smiling at people. 

     It is ridiculous, a waste of time, and incredibly hypocritical for us to "spend our workday" overcomplicating evangelization when we don't even put effort toward being loving, being sweet to those we interact with multiple times a day. Our world needs more Sweet Tea Christians, our world needs you.