What's Your Secret?

"IT'S YOU AGAIN! YOU'RE THAT GIRL!!!!! You're the happy girl!!"

"Haha, yes I am. How are you?!"

"I'm good! But seriously, what's your secret??"

Okay, Pause.

Yes, I was back at my usual Starbucks on campus and the barista ringing me up was my new friend, Matthew, who always tends to get pretty excited whenever he starts to take my order. Not sure what's going on? Check out my recent post, Happy Girl.

When Matthew asked me that question, it was like time froze--literally. My brain went through a checklist and tried to decide what I wanted to answer. What's my secret? Oh, so many things. First, why would I be mean to you? You are a student just like me! Second, you make my coffee. Coffee equals energy, so I value what you are making! Third, this guy named Jesus Christ totally turned my world upside-down and I'll never be the same again. Ok, ok...what do I say to Matthew?

Option two ended up coming out of my mouth before I could think twice, but I immediately knew in my heart that I completely missed an opportunity handed to me on a silver platter. I had JUST been given the chance to tell this guy about Jesus Christ and I simply said, "You make my coffee! Of course I would be nice to you!" Ouch.

It didn't bother me a lot at first, but over the next several days, I just couldn't shake that question--or my response--out of my brain.

1 Peter 3:13-18 addressed me pretty clearly:

If with heart and soul you're doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you're still better off. Don't give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They'll end up realizing that they're the ones who need a bath. It's better to suffer for doing good, if that's what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That's what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others' sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.

The next time I'm given an opportunity, I am definitely going to share the REAL secret behind my happiness. And I'm really praying that Matthew just might ask me that question again.