By Gina Caswell Kelly
I have the opportunity, once a week, to interact with our local high school athletes. Our church does a thing that has become known as “Gatorade and God.” Every Wednesday, our youth minister loads a couple of coolers up with Gatorade, and another guy and I go out in the afternoons to the gym, the tennis courts, the softball field, the baseball field, the track, the field house, where ever the athletes and coaches are. We give them a nice ice cold Gatorade and a Scripture card.
You already know that I love being around the kids. I love that they don’t seem to look at me as some grey haired old woman being in their way. I always get hugs and smiles and lots of “I love you Miss Gina’s!” Who wouldn’t love this! But, as much as it blesses me and others to be around these kids, the real blessing is in their response.
Nearly every week, one kiddo or another will tell me they have saved all their scripture cards in their phone case, or they go home and hang them on their wall. I have had kids tell me that they were going through a tough time and remembered a scripture that had been handed to them and how much it helped. We have seen kids begin to take part in our Wednesday night activities at church and go on and become Sunday morning attenders! But, it isn’t really about getting them to our church. It is more about getting the knowledge of a God that loves in their lives.
It is a small thing. A small bottle of Gatorade and a scripture card. But I think there is another part of it. I think knowing that there are people out there who care about you enough to try to make a difference your life is a big part. And why do we care? Because we have the love of God in our hearts. The Holy Spirit prompts us to care and to love.
It is just so incredibly easy to love others. It takes a whole lot more effort to hate than it does to love. I see hate all the time on Facebook. I see people not caring about others or their feelings. That is not who we are called to be. As the Bible says in 1John 4:8, “God is love.” A God like ours that is truly just absolute love makes it easy to love others. Even when some people are very hard to love, God can soften your heart and change your heart of stone to a heart of flesh, and of love.
Do one small thing this week to show God’s love to another person, then let it grow into more small things. My refrigerator is really big, but the plug is very small in comparison, but plugged into the right power, it makes that whole big thing work. Let your small act this week make a big difference in someone else’s life! Make a difference!
