Very sweet man

So i was in a planning meeting today for a publication i edit, and a guest adviser from a local organization was talking about an award show that they put on annually, in which they give a really nice hand-crafted limestone trophy to each of the winners. Someone asked where they get the trophies made; he said they get them from (so-and-so), "who is just such a sweet man". He said some more about the craftsmanship of the trophies, the reasonable price, and kept coming back to "a sweet man -- very sweet man". Out of the blue, he perked up and added:

"Very sweet Christian. I mean, it's like God blesses you every time you talk to him. And I can use that."

This was a professional meeting that is generally pretty secular. In this case, (besides me, a bit of a Methodi-Baptist) there was someone i think is Unitarian; the other two -- whose spiritual beliefs i don't know -- are more strongly associated with their activity in the homosexual community than any religious involvement that i'm aware of; although i'd only just met one, who was the speaker. And whatever his personal beliefs, he was obviously very impressed by the person that he went out of his way to call a "very sweet Christian." Everyone in the room sensed the genuine appreciation that he felt for the trophy vendor.

I felt a little blessed myself to observe this. But i am also saddened by a couple of things here. For one, i'm saddened because from many other things i observe, it's got to be fairly difficult for the homosexual community to have a positive impression of Christians these days. i'm also saddened by the fact that i doubt that people i serve in my job go around telling people that i'm a very sweet Christian. My "workmanship" is sometimes good, sometimes lacking. My prices are sometimes good, sometimes just what my predecessor set or the computer comes up with. And i'm not effusive about my faith at work. Bottom line: my witness is not anything like this "very sweet" gentleman.

But i'm happy that this gentleman is such a good example. I hope i can come to be more like him. If there were more Christians like him, perhaps there would be... more Christians, as a result of the positive "buzz".