Free Comes with Pricetags

-Written last Thursday-

Tonight, a very strange and unusual thing happened.

It started in the form of an unassuming postcard from "Southwest Travel", offering two free flight vouchers and whatnot for attending their conference.  Of course the whole scenario caused me to be skeptical, but if there was somehow a chance of free flights embedded in there, knowing how often we need to travel back to the family in MI having taken the first grandbaby and all…I figured why not look into it?

We reserved a time slot.  Got a babysitter.  Sifted through traffic for an hour and a half, and showed up at a typical high-end hotel.  Waterfalls in the lobby, stemmed water glasses, you know the type.  We signed into the event, giving a small bit of information about ourselves, kind of grinning at each other just bracing ourselves for whatever would happen.  Knowing that the power of saying “no” would be in our hands.

We were escorted into a conference room with a few white linen tables lined up, and our sales dude sat very closely on the other side of the table from us.  He kept insisting on getting us more water, so we finally said sure.  Corey whispered under his breath that he wanted to take a shower immediately…cos the whole thing felt really sleazy and grimy underneath all the white linen and business suits.  We made sideways comments about their WordArt Powerpoint slide backdrop, and were ready to sit back and enjoy the sales show.  Evan, our sales dude, returned with waters and proceeded to ask two questions regarding career orientation…and immediately got up as if he had been called to the back.

After an unusual amount of time, he came up to us and asked to take us out into the hallway.

There, he faced us and said a very unexpected thing had just happened.  Their main boss that runs the whole event, had just been found dead in his hotel room.

He said each of the couples would be escorted out one by one, given their free vouchers, and that the event would be canceled.  I faced this man, with true grief in my heart, seeing the disbelief and shock in his face.  He said his boss was scheduled to have stints put in his heart in two weeks that would have prevented this.

My eyes filled with tears.  The suddenness of the timing, and to be in such a strange position with others when dealing with such unexpected death.

We continued down the hallway, he offered to escort us out.  We decided we’d rather hang in the waterfall lounge for a while.  This dude seemed out of sorts, sweat was gathering on his head in pools.  I was feeling truly sorry for him and how awkward it must be to confront death in the presence of strangers who he was supposed to be selling to.  I kept reassuring him that he didn’t need to apologize, because he continued to.  I shook his hand and said I would be praying for him and his team.

So, just as I started to feel real compassion for this guy.  He started acting really strange.  Like, strange to the point that he kept coming back to the lobby to get refills on popcorn…like 3 or 4 times...and standing around in very unusual fashion.  I’m thinking by now, either this guy is stress eating in shock, or he’s keeping an eye on us.

Another one of the couples was escorted out behind us.  They stood talking with their guy for a long time.  Things felt so strange to me.  No more couples appeared to be coming out.

We talked with this couple when they were finally free from their suited man, and cross-referenced our stories.  So…the boss had died on Sunday now.  And they were being taken out, not because of the guy’s death 4 days ago, but because they didn’t meet the qualifications for whatever unclear and unspecific reasons they couldn’t understand.

My head started spinning.  We went back to the, now 3 sales guys hanging in the lobby, and got no straight answer from them.  They made it sound like the event was over.  Yet, going 100 meters down the hallway, the door was closed and a handful of suited men were hanging out there for the event still taking place.  Asking them questions, they also made our heads spin with every question.  Every statement.  So the boss died yesterday now?  Is the event happening or not? Somehow, we were made to felt that we should take our “gifts” and why be upset that we don’t have to sit through the whole thing. Etc.  Something about our qualifications.**  Something about their boss.  Something about our free “gifts”…it was all just way to much of a spinning whirl of incoherent jabber.  

**Note: the only logical assumption for us getting weeded out of the presentation in such a manner, was simply because we probably didn't meet their financial qualifications.  That is all and well with us, but why lie with such viciousness?! 

The justice inside my soul was silently screaming for Truth to come out of these men.  But they wouldn’t budge.  This is their profession.  To lie, to deceive, to get people’s money for their own gain.

Knowing I had not the words, experience, nor the skill to communicate with these men, I followed Corey’s cool and collected lead, containing all the defenses I wanted to shout at them, and we left.

I felt robbed.  Not of time, not of potential money, not of dignity….but of my heart.  Lie to me all you want to try to get your way, but, to reach in and play with the emotional tenderness of my compassionate heart regarding sudden death, that takes one kind of force in the world.

Yeah, satan. The author of lies and deceit.  I don’t think I’ve come so close to experiencing that in such vivid clarity in my life.   I wanted justice.  Not to harm them, but to bring them to Truth.  To show them the freedom in honesty and clarity.  Oh God, did my heart ever ache and continues to, for this team of men in suits. 

Sure, we left with these vouchers.  And yeah they might give us free flights....well...after the “$25 each in taxes” and the “$95 in registration fees.” Not to mention a lifetime supply of spam, junk mail, and telemarketing calls from all sorts of other sketchy business endeavors in the name of “vacation” or “travel” who ‘somehow’ got all our information. 

So, here it is.  My prayer, that they would know Truth and the Truth would set them free.

I wanted so badly to march back in there, hand them their “vouchers” back and have some witty Spirit-filled speech that would cause on-the-spot repentance and encounter with the Lord.  But, welcome to the real world Meg.  And of course, indeed, Salvation belongs to the Lord after all.

I could say it was invigorating to experience something unusual in the midst of an otherwise pretty typical week, the kind of unusual that makes our wayfaring feet feel alive again.  But more than that, I also know we were not brought there in vain.  We were led there, through whatever strange and unusual form, to cross paths with a bunch of brokenhearted men that are worth so much more than a puny business scam, but that are souls at a crossroads between the death, and the kingdom of Heaven.  

So our “free” flights most certainly could have come at a high price; getting tricked into a money scam or paying tons of fees for a “free” voucher.  It is so perfect of a reminder, that there is no true ‘free’dom without a price.  And that’s exactly why Jesus, being an honest and true man, went through the grief of being part of another person’s money greed exchange to the point of His death, so that He Himself could purchase our freedom. 

Because, let’s face it.  None of us, not even one, could stand when faced with the all perfect, all good, all Truth-filled God that so lovingly gave up of Himself, to reach into our brokenness and offer His own death in place of ours.

I am so thankful for this reminder.  And for the opportunity to pray for these men.

May Grace and Truth find each of us where we are.

M