Free samples at the grocery store. They always seem like a win.
Public service announcement: They are not.
Well, except for that guy who keeps coming back. Like he’s determined to make those samples into a full meal, toothpick by toothpick.
The reason it’s not a win for most of us, though, is that when you take a free cheese cube, you’re suddenly feeling obliged to purchase the 24-pound bag. Your entire family is lactose intolerant? Too bad, because: so much cheese.
Here’s the thing. How ungrateful would it seem to just walk away and not buy any if you liked the free sample? Also, how ungrateful would it seem to just walk away and not buy any if you hated the free sample?
Ingratitude coming and going.
Me? Even if it’s disgusting, I still can’t tell the lady I don’t want any. That might hurt her feelings. (She didn’t make this food herself. Giving it away is her job. Why am I like this?)
So that I don’t appear ungrateful, I will buy three cases of those tree-bark granola bars. Because she gave me three crumbs of it for free. The person who passes out the samples went to all the trouble of putting on those clear plastic gloves. The ones that are one-size-fits-no-one. You could fit a toddler inside one of those gloves. So…I will now purchase all of your granola bars.
Is anything really “free” if we always feel the need to pay it back?
That’s our innate misunderstanding of the gospel of grace, isn’t it? Grace. Free. No paybacks. It goes against our payback mindset.
But if we could pay it back, that would mean we could earn it. And Paul makes it clear in Ephesians 2 that’s not the way it works when he writes about the “immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (vs. 7).
Grace. In Jesus. Undeserved. Unearned. Un-pay-back-able. “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast” (vv. 8-9).
You know what’s exhausting, not to mention, futile? Trying to be good enough to earn the love and favor of God.
Public Service Announcement: Our response to His amazing grace is not figuring out a payback. It’s gratitude coming and going. Gratitude that shows up in how we live. How we love Him. How we serve Him. How we rely on Him for every breath.
God is so good. His grace allows us to let go of the pointless striving for perfection, knowing Jesus’ perfect sacrifice was payment in full, and enough for us all. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Proverbs 34:8).
So sure. Sample His grace. But let’s not merely sample it. Let’s full-on, full-in, taste it. Live it. Let it become part of every thought and every action, in His grace, by His grace, for His grace.
So yes, letting go of merely sampling.
I’m talking about some of the food sampling too. Because for the record, that purple cabbage puree? Yeah, I don’t care how free it is or how long you’ve been wearing those gloves, I’m not trying that.
