The power of invitation
I went out to the Ladysmith Ruritan Park on this past Sunday afternoon. I met with Kim and David Napier and some others who have organized our Skeet and Eat Haiti Mission Fund Raiser for this Saturday. I appreciate everything they have done to put this new event together because by doing so they are helping to change the lives of a group of young disabled women in Haiti in ways we can’t even imagine. David and his brother and several others were working hard out at the park getting everything ready for the shoot. I’ve never been to a skeet shoot before. As a matter of fact I don’t know that I’ve ever even shot a gun. Maybe one time at my uncle’s farm back when I was 10 or11 years old. I don’t actually remember if I got to shoot it or if I was just with my uncle when he was shooting at woodchucks. But on Sunday afternoon as we were finishing up plans for the event, David invited me to shoot his gun and to try and hit those little flying traps. Actually he invited my daughter Lydia to do it too. I almost said to him, “No no, I’m fine, thanks anyway.” I mean I was a little intimidated at first because I don’t know the first thing about guns or shooting them. I’m guessing that’s why when he first handed me the gun David said, “Let’s try this first without any ammunition.” And so David showed me how to hold it, where to place the gun on my shoulder, the different parts of the gun. He then handed me a shell to load and I actually put it in backwards. I realized then that he may have been wondering what he had gotten himself into when he invited me, but he didn’t let it show. He just laughed and then lined me up and I took my first shot. So very cool!! I shot again, again and again. Boy did I have fun! I only took a few shots and I never hit a thing, except maybe some trees on the far side of the pond, but I can’t wait to take my money and to go back this Saturday and try again!
The power of invitation is such an incredible thing. I got to thinking that neither Lydia nor I would have ever experienced the good time we had on a Sunday afternoon had David not invited us to participate in shooting his gun. All David said was “Hey Charles, Lydia, why don’t you come down here and give this a try?” I thought later that the same is so true when we risk inviting someone to church with us. They may say “No no, I’m fine. Thanks anyway”, and that is okay. Or like I felt when I was out of my element, they may feel a little intimidated because they feel they know so little about God or Jesus or the church. They may indeed know little or nothing, but if we are willing to just laugh with them and show them the way and line them up, they may wind up saying about God and Jesus and the church, “This is so very cool!” And when they’ve experienced that thrill once, they may be inclined to want to come back again and again and again. Who is waiting for you to call out to them and say “Hey why don’t you come over here to Wright’s Chapel and give this a try?”