Tell it like it is!

Pastor Ken spoke last Sunday about telling the people we love that we actually do.  As I was thinking about this, a scene from the famous movie “Fiddler on the Roof” came to mind.  This is a very moving scene between the husband, Tevye, and Golde, his wife.  The following dialogue ensues:

“Do you love me?”  He asks the question and, instead of giving a direct answer, she says:

“I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked your cow; after twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?”

As he is growing frustrated, the husband presses on and again, and again he gets an indirect answer:

“For twenty-five years I’ve lived with him, fought with him, starved with him; twenty-five years my bed is his, if that’s not love, what is?”

“Then you love me!”

“I guess I do”

“And I suppose I love you too”

“It doesn’t change a thing; but even so, after twenty-five years, it’s nice to know”

Tevye got frustrated because his wife kept going around in circles instead of telling it the way it is.  I can relate to that, because I get very frustrated when people don’t give me a direct answer, particularly when a person just beats around the bush instead of being direct.  Well, it turns out the Thessalonians did not beat around the bush, for Paul tells us in verse in chapter 1, verse 8 that “the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God.”

Evidently, these brothers and sisters were very clear about their faith.  People everywhere knew what drove them, what their passion was and what they were all about:  Their faith in God, their faith in Jesus. It was so evident that people didn’t have to wonder, didn’t have to guess, didn’t have to speculate. This church was faithful to their God and had no hesitation to tell others about it.

Are we like that?  Are we willing to tell everyone about who is the center of our lives?  Are we willing to say without fear and with passion that our relationship with the living God is the fuel that keeps us going day after day?  Just like Pastor Ken told us we need to tell the person we love we actually do, I hope we will be fearless about telling others about our faith. Tell it like it is!