“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32)

Before Christmas, I was privileged to spend four days smiling, dancing, greeting, and loving my community by ringing a bell outside my local Sam’s Club to collect money for my local Salvation Army. Notice I didn’t say that I was a bellringer. I was more than that. I was a giver and receiver of love – God’s love.

While I played music and rang a bell for hours each day, I also simultaneously offered blessings to everyone who walked past me. I never asked anyone for money. I just gave love – with my energy, smiles, and joy. The donations that came in, simply because people knew my cause was worthy and recognized the Red Kettle, blew me away – every single day. In fact, my kettle was so full at the end of my first day that the local coordinator provided me with two kettles each day thereafter.

Every day, someone touched my heart and soul. There was the man who, while riding by on his scooter, stopped to tell me he was in constant pain but still wanted to give to others. After telling him that I’d pray for him, he thanked me. “Sometimes, God uses pain to get our attention,” I said. He said he knew that, confirming he gave our Savior thanks every day for the ability to keep moving.

There was the woman who told me it was her 65th birthday as she placed money in the kettle for others on her special day. I asked her if I could sing her the unique song my family has been repeating on birthdays since I was four years old. She agreed, so I showered her with “A happy birthday to you. A happy birthday to you. Every day of the year, may you find Jesus near. A happy birthday to you. A happy birthday to you. May this be your most blessed year!” When I was done, I hugged her and told her she was a blessing. She responded by saying that my simple song “made her day,” while I assured her that she had made mine!

There was also the pastor I didn’t know was a pastor, who went to his car, came back with a church newsletter, and handed it to me, saying, “You blessed me, now I want to bless you.” The newsletter featured a story he’d written, years before, talking about a classic car his father had helped him buy as a young man, and how much it meant to him. It seems that his father never expressed emotion, so he learned to withhold his feelings in the same way. When his father gave him what he perceived as an ugly, distasteful car ornament to add to the car, he withheld doing so for years, thinking he didn’t want to demean the car’s value by adding it.

Privately, he hadn’t thought about this ornament for decades, choosing to hide it just as he’d hidden his emotions. It was only when deciding to share the story in a sermon analogy that he faced the raw emotion of how we often hide our faith in Christ, never wanting to offend or demean others with His blood and sacrifice. As it turns out, the day he shared this story, his parents came to hear him preach – nearly causing him to rethink what he would openly disclose to both his congregation and father.

While urging his congregants never to be afraid of public perception, he looked over at his dad, who was wiping tears from his eyes. At that moment, the pastor left his pulpit, walked directly to his father, pulled him out of the pews, and told him he loved him. As the congregation cheered, he reminded everyone never to be afraid to show God’s love.

And so, I won’t. Whether it’s in front of Sam’s Club as I told every passerby, “God bless you” and “Merry Christmas” while playing traditional and contemporary carols, proclaiming the joy of Jesus, or by standing unafraid to tell others in my workplace how the light they see is Christ in me, we all must stand unafraid to talk to others about our Savior.

Matthew 10:8 reminds us, “Freely you have received; freely give.” More important than filling a Red Kettle, may we generously bestow the love that Christ so sacrificially gave to us. If He could hang on a cross – stripped, broken, and bleeding to show His compassion for us – how can we give anything less to a world that so desperately needs Him?

We are the only gospel that many people will ever see – the only church they may ever know. We are Christ’s church, and everything we do should glorify our Savior and proclaim His love. This year, I am praying that God gives me more boldness, more faith, more passion for His faithfulness. I would be nothing without Christ. May I never be afraid to say so. May we all do the same.