Sinners Like Me

A blog of serious note today...

Hubby and I have been talking about this basically on a daily basis for about a week now.

We are having major issues with SEEING Jesus in people.

Does this sound crazy?

Absolutely. It should. Seeing Jesus in people should be easy considering we are made in His image and are supposed to be reflecting Him in everything we do, right?

Wrong.

I've always thought about reflecting Jesus by being the way Jesus was while he was here on the Earth. Take his ministry for example:

Jesus wasn't just hanging out with the disciples all the time. His ministry would have been pointless, had that been the case. He did not come clothed as a king or a priest, who would have been expected to be an elitist. He came as a carpenter - an everyman - who people found unbelievable to be the Savior of the Nation.

Think of the people He associated himself with - He ate dinner with the tax collector, a known thief and cheat. He healed the lame, sick, and demon possessed whose culture believed sin caused their illness. He healed the child of the Roman centurion, a hated man in Israel. Some of the disciples themselves were less than glorious creatures - fishermen. They were smelly, single men with no status symbols.

Not who the Savior of the Nation was supposed to be.

So why do we as Christians feel like we should surround ourselves ONLY with other Christians?

Aren't we missing the point?

Jesus was radical. He went against everything that hundreds of years of Jewish teaching had taught. He made FRIENDS with these people who were unsavory and unclean. He became relatable and loving and caring on these people who society said were undeserving. Jesus was a REBEL.

Ben and I feel like our whole life it has been drilled into our heads that we should stay away from the bad influence people and be friends only with Godly people. Has church not taught us that? Have our parents not taught us that?

"Stay away from him - he has issues."

"Don't hang out with her - she has a reputation."

"People will think you are just like her if they see you with her."

How are we ever going to win those people without being their friend? How can we show them Christ's love without loving them? All we are showing them by ignoring them is everything they have ever believed about Christians - elitist...hypocrytical...holier than thou...fake...closet sinners...

We can't just throw a tract at these people, promise to pray for them, and never think about them again. We can't condemn them for sin and then live a life of sin ourselves. We can't proclaim a life of outreach only to concentrate on foreign countries (while important, don't get me wrong) and forget about the person sitting at the desk next to us who needs Jesus. We can't take for granted that we live in the Bible Belt and everyone has heard of Jesus. We can't exclude people from our lives because we are afraid of the influence they will have on our appearance. We can't choose to surround ourselves only with Christians when we are supposed to be reaching out to sinners.

And I'm talking on a DAILY basis. This is not a one afternoon of the month, one week of the year thing. This is people we come in contact with every day. Not just the homeless or the broken down or the sick, which is who are charitable minds tend to gravitate to. These are a friends, our co-workers, the person standing next to us in line at Wal-Mart. People considered "clean" and "whole" by society. This is habitual evangelism (I'm pretty sure I just made that up - but I love it).

We are called evangelistic for a reason.

Our sinners nowadays are a little different. We don't come in contact with the lame and leper everyday. Identifying the problem is a little harder sometimes. Another thing Ben and I talk about is our call to missions. Some people are called to full-time missions overseas. Some people are called to full-time missions here in the country. Some people are called to work with the homeless and the abandoned. Ben and I feel like we are called to work with the normal.

Does that sound strange?

We feel like we are called to work with the every day person with the not so obvious issue.

The man with the good job, good family, grew up in church, but doesn't know Jesus.

The woman who loves Jesus but is questioning her belief after the sudden death of her husband.

The youth who are peer pressured just like we were in high school and college.

We feel like we are called to just BE with these people. Be their friend. Listen to their issues. Take it slowly. Bring out the Jesus when they are ready to listen and they can trust us.

HOW we're going to do that, we're not sure. We haven't quite figured that out yet. But we do know we're not going to stop hanging out with our sinner friends and we're not going to condemn their sins. Do they know where we stand? Yes. Do they know where they can come to hear about Jesus? Yes. Am I armed and ready for a theological argument? YES.

Am I going to push them away by shoving Jesus down their throats? No.

I'm still going to invite them to my home. We're still going to go bowling with them. I'm going to pray and hope that one day they take things seriously. But, if I want them to do that, I've got to have them trust me. From experience, the quickest way to push someone further away who is already running is to try to force feed them what they are running away from. They've already chosen not to listen - they don't want to be told every second why they should.

So, I love them unconditionally and pray for the day that they come home.

I am a sinner, too, and at several points in my life, people have reached out to me similarly. I was not shunned or excluded. I was continually welcomed in and loved for who I was as a person, not just as a Christian. We are all failures. We all deserve second chances and forgiveness, because we were first forgiven.

There were times then, and times now, when I am excluded for who I was then and who I am now. I sometimes am excluded for the people I associate with (which proves my point!!!!). I hope to never exclude someone for past or present sin. Life is hard and people make mistakes. All people deserve love and acceptance.

This is how I hope people see Jesus in me.

Really Random Off the Subject Blog Note: Miss America is Saturday! Miss Alabama, Ashley Davis, is from Dothan and has already won the preliminary swimsuit award! Check it out on ABC Saturday night!