My wife loves to shop for crafting supplies at JoAnn Fabrics in Duluth.
Inks, markers, materials, paper, dies, embossing plates all seem to make their way in abundance from the second row side shelves to storage bins at our house. I say, “What would you like to do in Duluth today?” She says, “Well, maybe we can go by JoAnn Fabrics?” I say, “Yes, dear. Whatever you like, dear,” and to JoAnn Fabrics we go.
Now, the thing about JoAnn Fabrics is that if you sign up online, they have coupons. With a coupon you could get 40 percent off your entire purchase, including sale items. Or you might get 60 percent off one card making ink. Or you might get 70 percent off select notions (whatever those are). With coupons, the store extends the opportunity for you to pay less than the off-the-shelf price for supplies you’re going to buy anyway.
So, I signed up. Figured as long as I was going to keep going to JoAnn Fabrics the wallet could at least use some relief. The downside? Every day I get an email from JoAnn Fabrics offering a discount on some potential purchase or another and they are always labeled: “For Use TODAY Only!”
Every day. Every. Single. Day. I think the marketing is intended to be motivational. It’s the old “if you want this deal you must act now” tactic.
And I imagine it might work, if the coupons didn’t come every day. Since I know a coupon will be available every day, and I know then, that any day I want to use a coupon there will be a coupon to use, I’ve started ignoring the daily emails. Don’t even read them anymore, just delete them.
The frequency of the offer undermines any sense of urgency the offer might otherwise inspire. I think many people today take the same approach to spiritual things. They’ve heard the offer of God’s love and grace so often they assume it will be there whenever they are ready and any sense of urgency is crippled by the commonality of the invitation. Lots of folks think they’ll take God seriously, only later. They rightly have the sense that God’s offer of mercy and love is always available. Problem is, just because the offer is perpetual doesn’t mean the opportunity is equally perpetual.
You don’t know if you’re going to get a “later” or not. The only moment of which you can be certain is the one you have right now, and you can’t even guarantee the duration of the moment you have. I know of a man who came to the North Shore on vacation and within minutes of arriving at the camp site drowned saving his son who had immediately gone to play on the riverbank and fell in and was in danger of being swept away into Lake Superior. I know of a man who came to run a race and died in his tracks. I know of a construction worker electrocuted while leaning against a piece of equipment chatting with his coworker. I buried a man who sat down to dinner with his family and collapsed face forward into his dinner plate, gone, never to return.
I assume I can use tomorrow’s JoAnn Fabrics coupon tomorrow, if I want to, but I’m also assuming I have tomorrow. And I might not. You might not either. The Bible says, “Today is the day of salvation; now is the appointed time.” This moment right now is the very best one you will ever have to talk with God about His love for you and the grace He has to offer. God is ready and waiting to show you the reason you are here. Make the most of the opportunity while you have it.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. Pastor Dale McIntire has served as pastor of the Cornerstone Community Church in Grand Marais since April of 1995.
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