There are dead ends on the informational highway.

     A nurse was working at the local hospital when the phone began to ring. She answered the phone to find an elderly woman on the other end. The woman asked about the condition of Mrs. Johnson in room 405. The nurse checked a few papers and on the computer to find out the condition of Mrs. Johnson before replying. The woman waited patiently on the phone. The nurse returned to the phone to tell the woman that Mrs. Johnson was doing great. She informed her that they would soon be removing her IV and that the doctor had already signed the discharge papers for her to be discharged the next morning. The woman on the phone thanked the nurse for the information. The nurse then asked, "Is Mrs. Johnson a family member of yours?" The woman on the phone answered, "No, this is Mrs. Johnson in 405. I wanted to know how I was doing since nobody has time to come to my room to tell me."
     Have you ever felt like Mrs. Johnson in room 405? You needed some information but the people

who knew the information wasn't sharing it? Of course I am not just talking about in hospitals. I remember waiting a whole shift at work to hear some information I needed at the beginning of my shift. The people with the information were walking around the entire time but not taking the time to share the needed information. For the most part people like to share information on a need to know basis. They like to you to know that they know but they don't want you to know what they know. Sheldon off the Big Bang Theory proves my point. There is an advertisement for the show that shows him riding in a car with Amy. Amy, who is driving, asks where they are going. Sheldon informs her that is information will be shared on a need to know basis. Amy tells him that since she is driving the car it is a need to know. To which he reluctantly agrees.
     Why do people withhold information? Sometimes we assume others already know. I am guilty of that. I will make plans and I assume that since I made them my wife will know about them. How is she supposed to find out? I don't know. I just assume that she will know. We forget other people need to know the information. Once before we were married I was at a family dinner with my wife's family. We were making ice cream on the carport when the power went off. One of her brothers begin to make the ice cream the old fashion way, churning it. After a while when his arm was worn out he inquired about where my wife's other brother was. Somebody went to find him and returned a few minutes later to report he was in the house watching TV. The power came back on and he forgot that his brother who was churning ice cream needed to know the power was on so he could use the electric ice cream maker.
     Then there are the times we choose not to share the information. As a teenager there was a lot of information I choose not to share with my parents. You laughed but you did the same thing and so did my parents. We all were afraid of the consequences that sharing certain information would bring. Sometimes we just don't want to make the effort to share information. We decide that since we found out the information those that don't know can find out for themselves. Or we decide that someone else can share the information. The results of those choices is that the person that needs to know information will not know it. That can lead to bad things happening and then it leads to people asking the question, "Why didn't you tell me?" We have all been on the wrong end of the "didn't tell" choice. It has cost us money, pain, energy, embarrassment, trouble and many other negative things. It makes us ask, "How could they not tell me?" We become angered not just as the situation but at the person that could have prevented the situation.
     What that in mind let's pretend for a moment. No, we are not going to pretend we are eating a

huge pile of bacon. Let's pretend that we are waiting to enter into heaven when we find an old friend in line before us. They get to the gates and it soon becomes oblivious they are not getting into heaven. As they are being lead away they notice you standing in line to get in. They look at you and ask, "Why didn't you tell me?" What would your response be? How would you feel? How good would your excuse sound then? Although that is just an imaginary scenario there is truth to it. There will be many that will find out to late about Jesus and the need to accept Him. What hurts the most is that some of those we never told. We didn't want to be embarrassed. We didn't want to lose them as friends. We felt like it was somebody else's job. We planned on doing it later. We have thousands of excuses but the bottom line is we didn't tell. When Jesus was talking about the harvest being white but the workers were few He was talking about us. We see the harvest, we know the harvest and we interact with the harvest but we don't harvest. We say to ourselves, "What is the worse that can happen if I don't tell them about Jesus." We don't want to know the answer to that question but the answer is they could go to hell. The choice is ours, we can be harvesters or we can work on the paving crew that is paving the path to hell with our good intentions. It may not be the path we are traveling because we know Jesus but it is the path our family and friends are traveling because they don't. Which job have you been working on? Are you tired of paving? Are you ready to harvest before it is too late?


Parting Thought: Even the prettiest most tasteful tomato has to be harvested before it rots.