Already Hurting

Sometimes inspiration for our devotions comes late in the day.   Such was the case with this one late on a Monday night.

I was conversing with a great friend and we were talking about evangelism.    One of the laments shared is the penchant for over the top, at times judgmental or harsh, in the face thumping that can leave the recipient feeling wounded.   The kind of evangelism that starts from the premise of convincing someone they are horrible so that they realize they need a savior.   The kind that, intentionally or not, wounds and breaks in an odd attempt to heal and restore.

Often proponents of this kind of evangelism shy away from or are critical of a softer, more relational evangelism.   Fair play as I am being critical of them in this instance.   There is the sense that it takes the sharpness and discomfort of no nonsense presentation of the gospel to penetrate hard and stubborn hearts.   That people clearly aren’t aware of their own sinfulness and so we must make them aware so they can get about the business of repentance.

Here’s the thing, this style may resonate with a minority of people, but the majority seem to, from my experience, be shut down or repelled by it.   I think I’ve figured out part of the reason.

Most folks don’t need us to hurt them in order to know they have hurt.   They don’t need us to harangue them about their brokenness, because they already feel where they are broken.   They don’t need us to guilt them, because they already feel guilty.

The folks in this situation don’t need someone piling on the already happening character assault they are leveling on themselves on the inside.    Further getting beat up isn’t the cure, it’s more of the illness.  Being judged isn’t a hopeful message because the judgment they feel inside is already eating away at them.

What they are looking for is hope.

They want someone to see that they are more than their hang ups and problems.   They need someone to say “I see your brokenness and love you anyway.”   They need someone who can come alongside them with a compassionate heart and love them into wholeness, inspiring the hope that there is more and there is better to this life than the hurt.    They need the embodiment of forgiveness so they can forgive themselves.

They need to see Jesus in us.

Our words about Jesus mean very little if His spirit is absent from them.

The fear folks have is that if we don’t take the hard line of evangelism, people won’t hear the gospel and we won’t get them to change their ways.

The reality is that delivering the gospel with a hammer ensures they won’t hear it.   Also, let me share that you or I will never get someone to change their ways.   That’s going to be about Jesus and their hearts working it out.

So we love.  We care.   We build relationships.   We tell them the gospel with our lives before we tell them with our voice.   It’s not one or the other, it’s both/and.   But get the order or the tone mixed up and our mission falls short.

If we want folks to know Jesus, we have to give them a reason.  The best witness of that is the witness of a life transformed.   Then they see Him.   Then we’ve given them a reason to follow us to the cross and be changed along with us.

Honoring Others

There is a video flying around right now of a moving moment in a worship service.   The pastor ordered pizza delivery during the service.   When the delivery person arrived she was invited up on stage where the pastor gave her a tip of $100 and asked the congregation to come forward and offer their own tip as well until there was a pile of cash before the unsuspecting woman.   She is a single mother of two just trying hard to make a life for her and her kids.

The moment was part of the pastor driving home the idea that we need to honor each other.    He was making the point that even strangers are worthy of regard and notice.   This video is making the rounds with much praise being given to the pastor and congregation for ponying up a bunch of money to give to a stranger who they figured was in need of their kindness.

I’m not deriding the pastor or congregation here.    Christ is clear that we are to give to the needy, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned, feed the hungry, and so forth (Matthew 25).   He is clear that there are no conditions on who does and does not deserve our love and aid.   James reminds us that we need to honor all equally, not only those who seem to already have more than they need in an effort to curry their favor.    We are to honor everyone as a child of God and invite them into our midst and ultimately into relationship with Jesus.

What should be on our radar, however, is that apparently Christians are shocked by this kind of behavior.   There is some seeming surprise that not only was the pastor actively calling on his congregation to honor someone, but that the congregation responded generously.

Let’s view this moment in a larger context.    What is being seen as an outlier moment for Christians is done almost daily by people like Ellen Degeneres.   I pick Ellen because there are still many Christians who, because she is liberal and one of the first major celebrities to come out as a homosexual without apology, would be rather harsh and condemning towards her even today.     Yet somehow Ellen uses her platform to, among other things, stand up for folks who don’t have a voice and honor people who are doing magnificent things, or are simply in need, with finances and other resources.

Let me sum that up.  A church gives a huge tip to a delivery person and the video goes viral because it’s so significant and impressive to see a church do this.   A celebrity that many Christians would reject does this daily as a point of practice and it’s no big deal to people of faith.

It would seem these things would be flipped.   That it would be seeing uncommon mercy, grace, and love from the celebrity would be the anomaly and seeing significant measures of honoring any random person would be the humdrum norm for Christians.

Christians honoring people just for being people should be our norm.    It should be our daily point of practice.   When Jesus saw people in need or sin he saw past their circumstances and saw them.   He saw the image of God in which they were created and loved them to encourage them to live into that image.

My dream is for Christians to become so grace filled and willing to honor others as Jesus did that it becomes the stereotype for our faith.   That the days of Christians being seen as judgmental, close minded, greedy, and self absorbed would be a thing of the past.    That those images would be replaced with frustration that we Christians are unabashedly compassionate, forgiving, open to people where they are, generous, and self sacrificing.   That people would come to the place where their upset at people of faith is that we make it impossible for them to be anything but their best selves in our presence because the Spirit within us draws it out of them and turns them away from things that feed those attitudes and actions outside of God’s desires for us and the world.

Here’s a suggestion to be a little more intentional right away.   John Maxwell has said that he tries to help is grandchildren start the day with a right attitude.   He asks them “what will you do today to add value to someone else’s life?”  Perhaps at dinner the question turns to “what did you do today to add value to someone else’s life?”

What if this becomes our daily offering to God?  Begin each day with plotting how to add value to each other.   End the day with accountability to name at least one thing we’ve done to follow through on that plan.   Letting that plan grow to moment by moment asking “how can I add value in this place in time?”

I think we’d see a major uptick in the instances of honoring God by honoring each other.

Why Not?

“The rain falls on the just and the unjust”.   I got some perspective on that sentiment last night.    The idea that rain falls on us all carries a depth to it.   Rain is life giving.   It can also be deadly if it comes down hard and for a long time.  And it is indiscriminate.  Whether you are an atheist or devout Christian, when the heavens open you get wet.   Whether you love Jesus, or have no time for him at all, when the flood waters come your house is just as prone to be swept away.

The implications of this passage are far reaching in a life of faith.   We have to understand that we can substitute just about anything in place of the word “rain” and it would be fitting.   Unexpected fortune falls on the just and unjust.   Tragedy falls on the just and unjust.   Wealth falls on the just and unjust.   Poverty falls on the just and unjust.

While we can point to a handful of miraculous events or coinciding events through which God speaks the truth of life is that many things are either the consequence of our actions or indiscriminate acts of chance or nature.

Nevertheless, many times people of faith have some degree of expectation that our faith will somehow elicit a charmed or favored existence.   When hard times come, we can quickly gaze at the sky and ask “why me?”

A friend whose life has been turned upside down for the last several months added some perspective.  In the midst of his trials, he had been privy to seeing many other people in similar circumstances.   His situation is terrifying and heart wrenching, yet as he shared his story he said “as bad as our situation is, 90% of the people I saw were even worse off.”

The reasons were varied.  Some it was extremity of their health condition.   Others it was how many other conditions or struggles were piled on top of their already tragic circumstance.    And for many it wasn’t so much their condition as it was the utter lack of support or aid they had available.   It was that they were enduring a major trial alone.

He shared all of this and said “I know a lot of people would be in my situation and say ‘why me?’ but after everything I’ve seen my conclusion is ‘why not?'”

Then he flipped our notions of favor and privilege firmly on their heads.

He marvelled at all of the support his family has received.  He was in awe of the outpouring of love and compassion not jut from friends, but from complete strangers.  He noted all of this with immense and humble gratitude.   Then he wondered aloud about those souls who have to endure such hardship all alone.   He shared that in truth, it makes far more sense and seems far more fair that his family, with wells of resources and support even he never dreamed of, be given the challenges they are facing than a person or family with no one to speak of to rally around them.

Why me?  Why not?  And when perspective strikes perhaps a much more heartfelt “why them?”

Naturally this isn’t wishing tragedy only on the well supported and well to do.   Even if it was it’s a futile notion.   The rain falls on the just and unjust.

What it does for the person of faith is offer perspective.    It inspires us to make a difference when and where we can because we see the difference our love  makes.    It reminds us to be grateful in the good times because the bad ones can strike with randomness and without reason.    It drives us to stay connected to a community of faith because it is in community that we have opportunity to rally around another in their hour of need and places us in the midst of God’s people who will rally around us when we are in our own hour of trial.

This sentiment should shift our attention when we struggle.  What are the things in our life that are helping us through?   Who are the people that have been sent to care for us?   Who has answered the call of God knocking at their heart to act as the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus?

And even in the middle of perilous times we  can give thanks.   Even in the middle of fear, confusion, and chaos we can point to the glory of God being shown.

Why me? is really the wrong question.   Why not? is even off base.

The question isn’t about why.  It’s about where.   Where is God working in the midst of this?   It’s who.   Who has God sent?  It’s how.  How is God using this unfortunate circumstance to speak into life and the world?