Square dance culprit

It is 1980 on a beautiful warm Thursday evening in Garden Grove California. Hundreds of High school students are circling up for an outdoor square dance. In the air was the sound of excitement, giggling girls laughing, hundreds of overalls and red bandannas blanket the lawn.

Soon square dance music was playing and the old, well fed caller, climbed up to the stage! "Y'all ready for some square dancin?" Students eagerly lined up for the Virgina Reel and the music played, "Honor your partner"...... and the music played on, until it didn't. What happened to the music we all wondered.

Part of my job was to assist the staff and make sure that everything ran smoothly. Frantically, I searched for the plug that must have come undone. Within a few minutes the sound was back on and everything was dancing right along!

Until..............

The sound stops again, this time the culprit was also seen. A disheveled neighbor who was not happy with the loud raucous square dancing music, had calmly walked over and unplugged the extension cord.

Being the mild mannered woman that I am, I demanded, "Hey what do you think you are doing?" This tired looking man told me that he worked the late shift and needed his sleep. We worked together to turn the sound down I promised that we would be finished before 9pm and off he went.

I will always remember the night the music stopped, mostly because I had a choice when I conversed with this man. 

We had every right to play our music, I could have just told him, too bad, so sad for you. What kind of witness would that have been? I had to think about the reputation of Christ. What if this moment had eternal significance?

Every day we have a choice,

A choice to be a witness of Christ and His love and grace

or

A choice to negatively effect the reputation of Christ.

Matthew 28:19