Our Job Is to Share

He could smell trouble a mile away. And with this many unwashed people gathered into one place, it was much easier to smell trouble.

"What's going on?" He directed his question to the group of Sadducees standing on the outskirts of the people. His ornate robes swirled around his sandal-clad feet as he swooshed to a stop.

A large crowd had gathered around some rather plain looking men. Their group stood just inside hearing range of the men speaking.

An older Sadducee glared and answered gruffly. "They are talking about Jesus."

"And the resurrection from the dead," another younger Sadducee added.

Anger and annoyance bubbled inside of him. This? Again? They were supposed to be done with this! He squinted at the men speaking, and felt his annoyance rise even higher just from looking at them.

He pointed his stocky finger at them. "We need to get rid of them. Something! It is not their place to be teaching the people, and it is certainly a grave wrongdoing to allow them to fill the people's minds with false doctrine."

The rest of the Sadducees nodded their agreement. They planned to arrest the fools, drive them out of the country, and be done with this business once and for all.

Based on Acts 4:1-2

"And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand." Acts 4:1-4

I, like many of you, have friends and relatives that are not Christians. Every time something comes up on Facebook that is not "politically correct," I hesitate sharing the article because I think of them. I worry that they will think I'm trying to shove my views down their throat. I don't even comment on the things they post that are so wildly wrong because I don't want to get into an argument.

What should I do?

Don't get me wrong. The stuff that makes me "me" is still on there. I always share all of my blogs, and you don't have to read those for very long before getting a good picture of my beliefs. But sometimes I wonder if I'm still being too much of a chicken.

Then I read a section like this. It gives me a little perspective, and honestly, a little comfort.

No matter what we do, there will always be people who will become "greatly annoyed" by what we are sharing. Always. They will always be there. So I shouldn't let them impact me so much that I remain quiet. Don't misunderstand. I'm not saying we should shove and preach to the point of alienating everyone around us, as that's certainly not the point of the Gospel. I'm saying it's not worth worrying if we will offend someone, because someone will always be offended.

Our job is to share. God's job is the heart.

V. Joy Palmer