“Some Live for the Dollar Bill”
by: Alysia Friday
“Some live for the dollar bill, kill for the dollar bill, wined for the dollar bill, grind for the dollar bill, ya’ll”. As some of you rock to the tune of Wyclef Jean Feat. Akon, Lil Wayne & Niia, there are others of you wondering what in the world is really going on? Isn’t this supposed to be an article about ministry and the spiritual growth of those in ministry? Well, it is. It’s the story about how I came to have an official introduction to the God of my salvation. Yes, it was a “dollar bill ya’ll”, that was offered to me and the children of five project communities in East Austin, to come to church and be introduced to Jesus.
I remember it so well as on this one particular Saturday, this ministry (I’ll keep the name protected as I don’t have permission to name them), so for that we’ll call them “The Ministry”; but they came on that Saturday, with buses and clowns and balloons and candy and goodies, to pass out to all of the children in these neighborhoods. And they came with a message that if we came to church on that Sunday, they would give each of us a dollar. A dollar! A dollar! All we have to do is get on this bus and come to church and you are going to give us a dollar. Do you know how much penny candy that can buy?! Why wouldn’t we?
That commitment and promise to give us all a dollar bill, yielded an overwhelming response from those project communities. And they had bus loads of us!…LOL. I do mean bus loads. I can’t really tell you what I was expecting, because we didn’t go to church. But what that dollar bill brought me that day, set the path of the amazing journey that God has had me traveling ever since. The one thing that arrested me that day and I’ve never forgotten it, was the teacher telling us about Jesus Christ and eternal life. But he also shared with us, that if we didn’t know him and accept him as our personal savior, that we would die and go to hell. And look…he literally scared the hell out of me. I didn’t want anything to do with that, and everything to do with living forever.
I could probably write an entire book on this and who knows one day God thru the Holy Spirit will lead me to do so, but what I do know is that the sacrifice….the sacrifice of this congregations servants, resources and yes their money, helped a girl from the hood to be introduced to the greatest gift in the world…JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD! So, why this story, why now even? Because it is now, in the most selfish time of our nation, that we don’t care to sacrifice for the good of others. For the good of those who are less than, for the good of those that are even more than. The sacrifice that introduces a new way, a new attitude, a new gratitude even and a new life. Not just life here on earth but a life new – a life separated unto God through His Son, so that we have eternal life with Him. Again, I can write a book and definitely a full sermon on sacrifice and the picture of sacrifice and what it looks like. A sacrifice that came willingly as did this ministry who came to us. A sacrifice that would go into the communities – that others wouldn’t dare to do so, as this ministry did as Jesus did. I mean “can anything good come from Nazareth”? The sacrifice of reaching into the pocketbook of their church treasury and give a dollar to all that would come. Talk about a marketing strategy that draws and produces! I’d say, Amen to that. A true picture of Christ, who paid for my sins and the sins of the entire world with His life. Talk about paying the cost, talk about sacrifice at the highest divine level, this is what he has done for all of those that will come. So, how do we after reading this little tidbit begin to look with in ourselves and begin to go beyond what is comfortable, familiar and feels good to sacrifice something, anything, so that another will come to know Jesus as their personal Savior. I encourage us, to look at sacrifice in a whole other way today and reach deeper to sacrifice for the eternal life of someone else.
Alysia Friday
afriday@baelp.com
Facebook: Alysia Friday