I found a recipe for Chinese food that called for beef, celery, onions and several other things, including bourbon.
I really struggled with this. Not at having bourbon in the Chinese food, but I was stressed about actually buying the bourbon. I was afraid that I might come across a church member in the grocery store, who might peek into my basket, as church members sometimes do.
Well, that day I put several items in my shopping cart. I got the bourbon and put it under the celery to hide it. A kid in our youth group was working a register, so I thought, “Oh good, I’ll explain to him about the Chinese food and then I’ll get out of there.”
So we chatted for a minute and then he started scanning my items. He came to the bourbon and scanned it, but nothing happened. He tried again and nothing happened. So he got on his PA microphone and said for the whole store to hear, “I need a price check on bourbon, aisle three - - price check on bourbon.” So now the whole store was looking at aisle three. And I turned crimson red.
To this day, I don’t know if he did that on purpose or not, but on the Day of Judgment, he just might have to answer for that.
Now here’s the truth: We sometimes need a price check in our lives. We sometimes need to stop and reassess things. Maybe we need to reassess our faithfulness, our prayer life, our kindness to our neighbors. Maybe we need to reassess the constancy of our faith. Is it time, perhaps, for a price check on our generosity, our outlook? Sometimes a price check in our lives is exactly what we need.