The Everyday Club

1/31/10 Home Depot Customers 50's
At Home Depot on an errand with my son, Sammy, I had a few friendly but short conversations about eternity with some customers, ending with two older black gentlemen. We talked about the necessity of following God's Ten Commandments and what it means to be a "good " person. One man talked about our sins of greed and selfishness as a nation. I agreed and talked about how we want everyone else to be brought to justice but ourselves, and then asked them if they would want justice on judgment day. "Do you want to get what you deserve? How many of God's laws does it take to be a lawbreaker?" They saw my point, that they will want mercy, not justice. One thought he could earn God's forgiveness but I explained that "God won't take our good deeds as a bribe to overlook our guilt". They had just told me they would like me to explain how God has shown us mercy (in Christ), when the store manager asked me to leave, saying that someone had complained. It was probably an employee, because none of the customers I talked to seemed to have been bothered at all. I felt like I was within my rights to talk to other customers, but I decided to leave graciously. Why give my energy to fighting for the right to talk to other customers in one location when there are so many other places to go? After hundreds of conversations in the marketplace, this is the first time this has happened, and it really wasn't a big deal at all.