Want a Cookie? By Pamela Walck
“Want a cookie?” A bunch of college-age kids were passing around a bin of chocolate chip cookies as my sister, my mom, and I sat waiting nearly twelve hours to interview to become a contestant on the Price is Right game show. “Who are these people handing out free cookies,” I thought? Why are they doing it? The woman next to me said they were a group of Christians. I saw the smiles on their faces and their laughter as they did something purely out of the kindness of their hearts, which seemed rare. I really didn’t understand the joy they had giving out cookies to complete strangers and striking up conversations. Fast forward a few more years. I would often go to Thursday in the Square, in downtown Buffalo, New York, where there was a lot of drinking going on. Walking in or leaving the area, someone would often hand me a pamphlet I knew was about “religion.” I’d take it and immediately throw it in a garbage can, never bothering to read it. “Freak,” I thought. Several years later, through a series of events, I received Christ as my Savior. Even after this, those memories would sometimes come back, throwing away the Christian pamphlets, tracts they call them. Now I know why people did those things. It was because they wanted others and me to know Jesus personally as Lord. I felt ashamed for acting and thinking so poorly towards them and Jesus.
50 | M AG A Z I N E N A M E PAGE 3 49
A few years after the cookie episode, something similar took place. As I waited in an airport to board a plane, I saw a bunch of people, probably in their twenties, sitting on the floor laughing, joking, and truly enjoying each other’s company. Someone told me they were a Christian group going on a mission trip. I felt a bit envious of them and how elated they seemed, even though the whole idea of going on a mission trip seemed foreign to me. Those people had something that I didn’t have at the time—joy. Once I trusted in Jesus, I started to own the deeper joy that comes from a relationship with Him. Before knowing Christ alone as my Savior, my mood was often more temperamental, easily affected by the happenings in my life. Not that we can’t have feelings, God gave us those, yet at the same time, I often felt more controlled by my feelings. Faith differs from feelings, as sometimes our feelings can lead us astray. Making righteous choices— in line with the Bible, requires some discriminating, not just agreeing and believing anything if it “feels right” or based on a majority. If you look at Noah, who built the Ark, everyone else perished except Noah and his family because he obediently followed the Lord. He applied his faith to what God told him to do. Faith requires action and so does love. I also remember an unpleasant experience concerning chocolate chip cookies. Many years ago, I went out with a guy a few times and decided to surprise him by baking chocolate chip cookies and putting them on his porch. I didn’t even get a phone call from him thanking me. A few days later, I called him to make sure he got the cookies. “Oh yeah, thanks,” he said half-heartedly. Obviously, the relationship didn’t last, but it reminded me that we can’t always expect a positive response even from good intentions.
