I only did it once, and that was enough. I forced pizza into my son’s mouth, and today, he is glad I did!
When you are thirsty, it is easy to seek water and drink. Nobody will plead with you to get water so that you may quench your thirst. But even if you are not thirsty, you still need water although a knowledgeable person will need to convince you that you need a certain amount of water daily to keep your system working at optimal.
For quite some time, I thought that I only need water when I am thirsty. Once in a while, I would read or hear people say that water is important for the body but it didn’t give me the compulsion to seek water even when I wasn’t thirsty. I have, however, grown to appreciate what water means to the body. Today, I drink water, a lot of it, even when I am not thirsty.
In life, we may not know what we need, sometimes until somebody “forces” it down our throat.
From when he was a little, my elder son didn’t like pizza. All our attempt to persuade him to eat pizza fell in deaf ears. Notwithstanding though, I knew that it would only take a taste to make the boy know how good pizza was. We finally lost patience when he was 6. We had done enoug trying to beg him just to have a bite.
One day, I literally forced a piece of pizza into his mouth and warned him of a dire consequence if he spitted it out. He reluctantly started chewing it, increasing the tempo with the subsequent munchings. When he finally swallowed it, we could tell that he had "needed" the pizza all along. I couldn’t believe it when he forcefully pulled the other piece that was still in my hand. The long awaited feasting had begun in earnest. Since then, pizza ranks amongst the top of his favourites. He is now 11.
The Bible says:
O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him (Psalm 34:8 KJV).
The difference is that with Christ, we cannot force anyone the way I forced pizza into my son's mouth.
Many people erroneously think that Christianity is for people who are desperate, poor, troubled, etc. In one sense it is but not in the sense that many people take it to mean. Salvation and the subsequent relationship with Christ is like water, something we need whether we are thirsty or not. It is also like a pizza that a boy rejects but when he tastes of it, puts it at the top of his list of favourite foods.
We need salvation whether we are desperate or comfortable.
I was not looking for Christ when He met me. I was extremely reluctant to be saved, but when a woman of God “pushed” me into tasting salvation, I had a moment of Aha, what a discovery! This is what I have needed all my life!
It was after I had tasted of the mercy, love and grace unto salvation that I started craving for more and more of His virtues. We cannot crave for salvation until we have a taste of it. This is what the apostle Peter says:
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Peter 2:2-3 NIV).
Babies cannot crave the mother's milk before they are born. This explains why people who are not born-again don't crave for the Word of God.
If only Christ would be “forced” into people’s lives, they would, at the end of the day be glad they were forced. Too bad, we can’t do that.
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The beauty of Salvation is that it is FREE, it is a CHOICE and so it is for us as Christians to live the life that others may see Christ in us and want to know what makes us different. I'm glad the gospel isn't forced because I believe we would have an epidemic of pleople pleasers instead of true worshipers(not much different from what which we have now, I guess) Lets pray that more believers live a life that is pleasing to God and be a witness for the world at large. Your article brought a few issues to light which we all need to take a good look at how well we are presenting the gospel individually and collectively. Thanks for sharing.
