Tuesday, 08 July 2008

• They're Flying Too High To See My Point Of View

  I've been spending a lot of time alone these past few months, which is a pretty big change from my usual summer program. In fact, this is a very unusual occurence. I like talking and noise and big groups, concerts and festivals and being in the middle of a general melee. I have been using this time to do a lot of reflection (hence the writing) and it has cleared a lot of the noise that typically surrounds me. I am not what one would call a quiet or gentle spirit, and though I know that these are generally considered positive attributes, I've never seemed to get a grasp on them.

  It feels like the edges of my personality are too big and sharp to fit into those timid and round words. I have been described as "forthright", though possibly those people meant abrasive and/or blunt. I try to be tactful and not purposefully hurtful, but I also don't play games or beat around the bush. Sometimes my hair is neon colors, though now it is black. I'm not particularly soft-spoken and my laugh has been know to alert my friends to my whereabouts on the other side of a SuperTarget.

  I try to contain it. I know the fruits of the spirit. Sometimes I feel like an example of "Oh, look, all kinds of people can be Christians". But I think that God sometimes uses my tendency to blurt things out or have loud, definite opinions. This is probably the case when it comes to what I call the "Jesus bubble" and a friend of mine terms the "holy huddle."

  God calls us to be separate, holy and consecrated to Him. But He also came down personally to deliver the Great Commission to us in Matthew 28. I'm pretty sure we can't pick and choose which New Covenant commands to follow, so I do my best (which is not that great, to tell the truth) to follow Him completely.

  Christians do not spring up out of the ground. If you weren't lucky enough to grow up in a Christian household, probably at some point a person who truly followed Jesus befriended you, a non-believer. That's what happened to me. A lovely, lovely girl took a chance on being best friends with a heathen like me from 3-9th grades, when I gave my life to Christ. She moved away a month after that and I still marvel at God's hand in it.

  Poll people who have given their lives to Christ, and I bet you won't find many whose lives were changed by a tract. Or a t-shirt or a cardboard sign, as a matter of fact. What is at the basis of these people's stories is a relationship with someone who showed them Jesus. It could be a parent, a pastor or someone they met on a streetcorner, but it was surely someone willing to talk to them, to meet them as a beloved creation and tell them about their Creator. Someone who cared enough to go. To talk. To be Christ for someone.

  Instead many of us cover our eyes and ears to suffering and turn inwards, to our prayer circles and Bible study groups and children's church and convince ourselves that we are doing all the right things. We only associate with other Christians and tell each other that we are doing pretty well. Someone else will do something about those people over there.

  We can become swept up in sending money, in raising aid and in leaving the converting to the missionaries. But there are probably people hurting in your city, on your street or under your roof. Some of them may need your dollars, your old clothes or your food donations, but all of them need a relationship with someone who can show them how God loves them.

  It has to be an intentional lifestyle, of trying to look at people and not past them. There is no one beneath notice. Do you look the girl at the counter in the coffee shop in the eye? How about the man lying on the sidewalk? It becomes hard to ignore people's humanity when you do this, and hard to just walk away if there is something you can do to help.

  I look at it this way. By some crazy miracle, Christ lives in me, so I have something to give every other human on this earth, even if it is just the acknowledgement that they are here. Even if it is only a quick prayer when there is nothing in my pockets. And by the way, I have never had someone on the street refuse to let me pray for them.

  So go outside. If the Holy Spirit resides in you, you have a huge pile of riches that gets bigger every time you share it. Don't be afraid. Maybe the God of the Universe will be looking out of your eyes at someone you meet.

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