My childhood was in the 60′s and 70′s…the middle child of five children.  Though we lived in several places the majority of my childhood was spent in Fort Myers, Florida.  I loved it.  Icky sticky hot and humid.  It was great…I think.

We were a family of seven with my dad as the sole wage earner most of the time.  I don’t know exactly what income “class” we were in but I would often wear hand-me-downs from my cousin and there were no trips to McDonalds.  We had to stretch every penny.  That’s where “S&H Green Stamps” enters my memories.  “S&H Green Stamps” were given to shoppers who purchased groceries at U-Save Supermarket.  And we shopped there every week.  S&H Green Stamps were cool.  And they came with little books to paste them in.  I would lickem’ and stickem’ and dream about what we might get with S&H Green stamps!  (Someone told me that the glue on the back of the stamps can cause brain damage.  After hearing my S&H Green Stamp stories and living with me my wife says she thinks it’s true.  I’m not sure what she means.)

On Fowler Avenue in Fort Myers there was the, “S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center.”  What a great place.  It was there you could take your S&H Green Stamps and get…stuff.  If you saved enough of them you could get lots of stuff.  You could even get a car!  Every time we would go I was absolutely fascinated.

At six years old I learned that these stamps weren’t good for much else.  The mail man would never take my mail or post cards with S&H Green Stamps no matter how many I placed on any single piece of mail.  It was frustrating for both of us.  It seemed the only place they were any good was at the “S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center.”   Imagine that.  But there…they were worth something.  At the redemption center they had value.

What a wonderful and simple picture of redemption.  It is the act of becoming…of becoming valuable…of having definitive worth.  The Bible describes the acts of Jesus Christ as that of a Redeemer.  As One who provides the place and opportunity for humanity…for me… to find and to have “worth.”  Everyone He encountered was exposed to the potential of a greater worth than they had believed or known.  The sinner, the blind, the lame, the deaf, the Pharisee, the wealthy, the marginalized…each had the opportunity of redemption…of realized value and defined worth.  I’ve determined I want to live that way.  Not just for myself…but to others.

Make no mistake, living redemptively is not just living a nice life as a nice person saying nice things so that people feel…nice.  Redemption has everything to do with a focus on recovering God’s intentions toward mankind and the resulting fullness and whole-ness that is possible for every human being.   What a great way to live.  To, in some small way, help reveal or expose some measure of worth or value that God has placed in every person and in every situation that somehow may not yet be seen.

To live and lead redemptively is a journey and an adventure.  Few “comfort zones” allowed.  I pray the life I live and the church I serve would be known as a “redemption center.”  You’re worth something here.