That's it!

A good friend of mine sent me one of those emails that gets sent to everybody. He had sent it to me and said that he could not wait to get my reactions to it. I think that question was what made me think about this more. It began with a marvelous, warm, tender story about love, friendship, hope, and compassion. It was a delightful story. I was charmed to tears by the tenderness of the story. I was most grateful to him for sending me the story.
But then came the second part. It was a long list of instructions of things I was supposed to do if the story had moved me. I was supposed to immediately send it to ten of my best friends. If I did not send it, I was being ashamed of God and afraid to bear witness in pubic. I cannot here remember all the instructions that were suggested, but I did not do any of them.
So I thought about my reactions to that email. I realized I did not like being manipulated. I did not like being told what I had to do with a gift. The story was a great gift from my friend, but it was not really a gift, because, he, or the first sender, felt enough in charge of the gift to be able to tell me what to do with it. If it were truly a gift, then I could do whatever I wanted to do with it. But it was gift in disguise. It was really a trap. The email was sent to push me into a corner and make me feel guilty if I did not send it on and to make me ashamed or proud of myself if I did send it on.
Unfortunately for all of us in the Christian community too much of our efforts to share the great story of God's love is given in the same way that the email is given. When we talk about God's gift of grace, we try to use that as the means to make people do certain things. Give more, vote in certain ways, no dancing, believe certain things. I loved the story, but I will refuse to let the one who gives it to me tell me how to react to grace. That is it. That is why I do not like those emails.