Inspired by First Thessalonians 1:5-10, two friends in a small-town coffee shop start with the fact that words alone don’t do anything and end up somewhere neither of them expected. They talk about hearing true things and feeling nothing, about a woman who was scared and had joy anyway, about what it actually takes to get that, and about what turning to God means when leaving something behind. One of them names his own idol without meaning to.
Tom: Have you already ordered?
Ray: Yeah, she’s bringing it. You want the usual?
Tom: I’ll get it in a minute.
Ray: Alright.
Tom: So I got five through ten today.
Ray: That’s a chunk.
Tom: It is. But it kind of holds together.
Ray: Okay.
Tom: He says the gospel didn’t come to them in word only.
Ray: Meaning what?
Tom: Meaning the words mattered; he still had to stand up and say it, but the words alone don’t do the job.
Ray: Huh.
Tom: Something came with it. He says God’s Spirit.
Ray: Yeah, okay.
Tom: Because how many times have you heard something true and just, nothing?
Ray: All the time.
Tom: Same.
Ray: I sat through a funeral in March, and the guy said all the right stuff, and I felt like I was reading a phone book.
Tom: Right.
Ray: And then other times somebody says something ordinary, and it just gets you.
Tom: That’s kind of the thing. Same words.
Ray: Different day.
Tom: Or different something. He’d say it’s the Spirit doing it.
Ray: I guess that takes some pressure off.
Tom: How do you mean?
Ray: Well, if I tell my brother-in-law and he shrugs, that’s not on me exactly.
Tom: No. But you still tell him.
Ray: Yeah, yeah.
Tom: Then the next part’s the one I can’t get around.
Ray: What?
Tom: He says they took it in with a lot of trouble and a lot of joy. Both.
Ray: At the same time.
Tom: Same sentence.
Ray: I don’t buy that. Or, I don’t know. I want to.
Tom: Why don’t you buy it?
Ray: Because when things are bad, they’re bad. I’m not humming.
Tom: Ha. Nobody’s saying humming.
Ray: Well, what’s it saying then?
Tom: I think joy’s not the same as being in a good mood.
Ray: Okay, but everybody says that.
Tom: They do say that.
Ray: It’s almost a cliché at this point.
Tom: Yeah. Doesn’t make it wrong though.
Ray: No.
Tom: And he tells you where it came from. Joy of the Spirit. So it’s not them being tough.
Ray: Hmm.
Ray: My aunt was like that at the end. Everybody said so.
Tom: I remember.
Ray: And she wasn’t faking it, that’s the thing. I watched her. She was scared some days and still, something was there.
Tom: Yeah.
Ray: I don’t know how to get that.
Tom: I don’t think you get it. It comes with the Spirit, and the Spirit comes when you’re His.
Ray: Meaning what, exactly?
Tom: Meaning when a guy takes Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Spirit moves in. That’s the deal. Then the joy’s His to hand out.
Ray: Takes Him how, though. Like what do you even say?
Tom: Not much. Three words, honestly. Lord, save me.
Ray: That’s it?
Tom: That’s it. He knows what you mean.
Ray: Seems too small for what it’s doing.
Tom: Yeah. I think that’s kind of the point.
Ray: Huh.
Ray: That’s not very useful for right now, though. I mean for the joy part.
Tom: Maybe not today. But it’s not something you work up on your own, is all I’m saying.
Ray: Yeah.
Ray: Sorry, go ahead.
Tom: So then it spread. He says everybody in Greece was already talking about it before he could tell them.
Ray: That town was on the road, right? You said that.
Tom: The highway and the harbor. Everything moved through there.
Ray: So word got out fast.
Tom: Real fast.
Ray: Makes sense.
Tom: And what people were telling him was this. They turned to God from idols, they started serving Him, and they’re waiting on Jesus to come back.
Ray: Okay.
Tom: And that’s the same three from the other day. Faith, love, hope.
Ray: Say it again.
Tom: Turning is the faith part. Serving is the love part. Waiting is the hope part.
Ray: Huh. Same three.
Tom: Same three. He just says it a different way.
Ray: And it’s three again.
Tom: It’s always three.
Ray: Your grandma thing.
Tom: That was your grandma.
Ray: Oh. Right.
Tom: The waiting part got me, though.
Ray: Why’s that?
Tom: Because waiting sounds like doing nothing. But serving’s sitting right next to it in the same line.
Ray: So they’re waiting while they work.
Tom: Seems like it. Ah, but not work work, this is working as unto the Lord.
Ray: Right, serving others as in the labor of love.
Ray: What was the first one again?
Tom: Turned to God from idols.
Ray: From.
Tom: Yeah, from. That’s the part I keep looking at. They didn’t just add God to the pile.
Ray: They dropped something.
Tom: Had to. And it cost them, because in that town the idols were the whole social deal. Your job, your neighbors, all of it.
Ray: So leaving that’s expensive.
Tom: Real expensive.
Ray: I don’t have idols though. Like I don’t have a statue.
Tom: Ha. No.
Ray: What, you think I do?
Tom: I think I do. I just don’t call them that.
Ray: Like what.
Tom: I don’t know. The account balance, mostly. That’s the one I check first thing.
Ray: Huh.
Ray: Yeah, I check the weather and then the account balance.
Tom: Right.
Ray: That’s probably nothing though.
Tom: Maybe.
Ray: Or not.
Tom: Or not.
Ray: Man.
Tom: Anyway.
Ray: You gonna order or just sit there?
Tom: I’m going. You want anything?
Ray: Nope. Hey, don’t let me forget I owe you for the gate latch.
Tom: You don’t.
Ray: I do.
Created by Steve
God’s Word…
Holman Christian Standard Bible
First Thessalonians 1:5-10
5For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we were among you for your benefit, 6and you became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit. 7As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8For the Lord’s message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out. Therefore, we don’t need to say anything, 9for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you: how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.