Beggars and Choosers

I'm quite a bit behind in posting my articles for the Daily Sentinel. This article first appeared back on the last Friday of October. It was a lot more timely near Halloween than Thanksgiving and Christmas. But oh well, enjoy anyway.....


Last night was “Trick-or-Treat” Night here and in other communities in the County. Hundreds of children took to the streets dressed up in costumes and went from door-to-door expecting to receive candy. “Trick or Treat!” they shouted. Adults smiled, admired their costumes and threw a couple of fun-sized chocolate bars or sugary sweets into their bags. Then the kids raced off to the next house to repeat the ritual. Again and again. Until they come home at the end of the evening with bags almost as heavy as they are!

What fun! Begging for candy – and getting it!! During their quest, kids don’t care what kind of candy they receive. The fun is in the pursuit of a full bag – it’s only later that they become choosy at what they actually eat. (Actually, it may be the parents who are choosy as to what they actually eat!)

My wife and I would always go through the candy after our kids came home from trick-or-treat night. Part of the sorting, obviously, was to make sure the candy was safe to eat. I haven’t heard as much lately, but when I was growing up, there were all kinds of stories of unsafe and dangerous items being planted in the candy to hurt or poisoned unsuspecting children. Rumors of razor blades embedded in apples and popcorn balls meant the end of homemade or healthy treats. Now we’re left with prepackaged candy, none of which is really good for us.

But beyond making sure the candy is safe, we also separate out the chocolate from the sugary stuff. You see, I am very choosy when it comes to the candy that I consume! What I want is chocolate with nuts, such as Snickers, Mr. Goodbar, or Reece’s. My kids on the other hand, like Smarties, Tootsie Pops, and SourTarts, as well as chocolate. But they don’t like nuts!

I think all this begging and choosing about candy is similar to what we do when it comes to Jesus Christ. We come to Jesus as beggars. We have nothing of value to give him. Even if I have all the wealth of the world, I cannot buy a relationship with Christ. God doesn’t care about what I have, God cares about who I am. So the only way to have a relationship is to come as a beggar, begging for forgiveness and a fresh start in life.

And just as on trick-or-treat nights are bags are filled with candy, so are our lives filled with Jesus Christ when we come to him. Often in the euphoria of that new relationship, we don’t care what Jesus is doing in us. We’re just excited that now we have found something of true value. But then something strange happens. We start to become choosy about what Jesus wants to do with us. Some things about us, we are ready for him to change; but other places are definitely off-limits!

When pastors start to touch on those off limit places, they get accused of “meddlin’,” and people don’t like it. Sometimes pastors are meddling in things, but more often than not they are simply preaching the uncomfortable truth that we cannot choose to ignore without eternal consequences. We cannot say, “I’ll take Jesus – hold the nuts!” We either get all of Jesus, or none of Jesus.

In Luke chapter 9, Jesus said to a man, “follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “no one who puts his hand to the plow looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Jesus was not trying to be unreasonable with these men, but he was insisting that they follow him without reservation. He makes the same demands upon us today. We can beg for forgiveness and ask for salvation, but we cannot be choosy as to how God responds. You can trust that when you say “trick-or-treat” to Jesus, there will be no tricks – just treats!