I think it’s important to talk about things that have not worked in the student ministry. I am sure like me if you have ever worked with students and/or children you have found things sometimes do not work. It seems like canned soda’s have hovered around the $0.50 mark for decades. The cost of a soda (name brand) ranges but for the most part costs $0.22 per can. When I first arrived at Southbrook, I learned how to program the soda machine (insert evil laugh). I made all beverages $1.00 per can. This did a few things. First, it slowed down the consumption by about half. Imagine that…higher price…slower ‘sales’. I was filling the machine once every two weeks. When I made the price change, I noticed I could go 4 weeks between fillings. It was my love for the students (and the mounting insurrection) that drove me to lower the price back down to $0.50. The thing that was hard for me to believe was that when I was in middle school, the price was the same. Two quarters…yeah two..that’s what I paid for soda. I’ve been out of MS for many years now…and it’s a bit surprising that inflation has not caught up with the student ministry soda machine.
The best part of this whole experiment was that when the prices were lowered, I felt loved beyond all comprehension (I obviously made the right decision). I thought for sure that the students were going to construct a statue or paint a mural to commemorate the special occasion.
I wonder though…how many things we as Christ followers have done that did not work. Seems like sometimes our best intentions get us further away from where God wants us to be. I suppose the only encouragement for us is that no matter how far off the beaten track we stray, our loving father in heaven is always there to embrace us (us…not our sin). The cool thing is that any bad decision can be righted now. We can at any time negate a bad decision and begin doing the right thing. I wonder if we have any $1 soda machines in our spiritual lives.