"Come now and let’s reason together, says the Lord."
~ Isiah 1:18
Its sign was bright and inviting,
unlike the junk on display. Everything
was sprawled across the front yard; it looked like someone had tried to create
some semblance of order, then gave up.
After finding a place to park, Laura pulled in and moseyed back towards
the sale.
Bonnie, the old woman running the sale sat in a deck chair,
holding a small blanket to her face; as if she weren’t sure she should put the
price tag on it.
Laura found it perversely exciting; rummaging through intimate
memories which defined childhoods, marriages, and vocations. All bearing themselves for the world to paw
through.
She went to ‘work’ sifting through boxes of slightly stained
baby clothes, rusted tools and ancient hardbacks, seeing nothing of value. Just before calling it quits, she spied a
collection of old LP’s (translation for teens: LP’s or Vinyls predated MP3’s,
CD’s, Cassettes and 8 Tracks).
The sales tag read $10.
This collection seemed like a really good deal since most of
LPs were more than a half-century old. There
could be a small fortune lurking among those dusty old recordings.
Laura handed Bonnie a crisp $10 bill, rejecting the
temptation to offer something less.
This seemingly innocent purchase turned into a gold
mine. Careful research and targeted marketing
netted Laura more than $1,800 in profits.
Then that little voice in her head started talking. You know the one – that annoying Voice that
we trust in uncertain times like a Guardian Angel.
She ignored it.
Accurate pricing is not my responsibility, she
reasoned. When the Seller places something
on a table at a yard sale with a sticker on it that means they agree to sell it
for that price. If the Buyer thinks
that’s a good deal – and in this case, Laura certainly did – then the buyer has
every right to pay that price and attempt to earn a profit on it.
But the Voice wouldn’t be still. It’d become a constant companion now.
Janice touched her face, it felt moist. “Leave me alone!” she yelled. “It’s my choice!”
Weeks later, Bonnie received an envelope in the mail stuffed
with $900 in cash and a note that said, “A
few weeks back I bought a box of old LPs at your garage sale for $10. I sold those records on eBay for $1,800 and I
figured you deserved half.”
As Christians, we created that Voice and gave it great
authority and power over our choices and trust it to be right. We don’t live without a model or in
isolation. When we commit ourselves to
Christ, He graciously implanted a powerful ally in the battle against sin; a
gift that brings both joy and freedom.
God of conscience and God of courage, steer
us through this maze of spiritual confusion and public uncertainty. Lead us
beyond ourselves to care and protect, to nourish and shape, to challenge and
energize both the life and the world You gave us. Amen
