Filed under: Bio, Missional Church, Missional Living | Tags: Christianity, God, incarnate, Incarnational Living, Jesus, Love, loving others, Messy people, Missional, serve, Spirituality, toxic people
We all have “those” kind of people in our lives. Wether they are friends, family members, or ex’s, there is always that one person who has made bad choice after bad choice to the point that their lives are in ruin. Many times we label them with words like leeches, losers, or just plain toxic, And if “yours” is like “mine”, then you know that when they call you, their life is in a state of crisis, and more often then not they need some kind of help. To be totally honest, I hate answering those phone calls, I dread returning those messages, and I make excuse after excuse to put it off. Yesterday I got one of those calls…
He needed a ride to get some money or he were going to be kick out of his one room studio. It was an emergency. I had things to do, I had to go to work in a few hours, and I really had no desire to again enter into his life and be confronted with all of the chaos and hurt. I really just wanted to say I was too busy to help.
So, at 8:30 in the morning, I drove downtown to pick him up and hear the whole story. He had gone on a drinking binge (again), got in a fight with his girlfriend, and she left, taking what little they had. This caused a downward spiral into a deeper multi-day drinking binge, and now he was broke, lonely, and on the verge of being homeless. I had already resolved not to allow myself to believe his excuses, or to lend any money, but there was something about the way he kept telling me, “I really f-ed this up”, that made me realize that God was already working here.
I wish I could say that in our brief time together in the car he surrendered to the way of Jesus, miraculously was healed of his alcohol addiction, turned his life around, and found a few thousand dollars on the street. Instead, we found a way to get him enough money to pay this months rent (he even offered gas money to me), and we had a few disjointed conversations about God and His love for all people. He gave me the classic line that he was already on his way to hell, but he didn’t understand why bad things happened to the “good” people he knew. He’d given up on God but he didn’t understand why God had given up on others. Amid his ramblings I tried to share that God did care about him, and that He wanted the best for him, to experience real life. It was in the middle of this that he uttered these words that nearly brought me to tears, “I know that, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
Wow, are you serious! Really. I didn’t want to be there. I really didn’t have any hope for him, and would have done anything to avoid being there. And yet, in spite of myself, God allowed his love to be incarnated in me! To this hopeless man, I appeared as the love of God. What an honor.
I dropped him of at his apartment, told him I loved him, and that he would be in my prayers, and that was the end of it. I don’t know what will happen next, I don’t even know how much of his story was true. But I do know that God’s love showed up in my car yesterday, without me even really wanting it to, and it got me thinking. How many other people in my life are searching desperately for the love of God, but no one is showing up to revel it to them? How many of us miss out on chances to be Jesus to others because we’re to busy, or because it is too mess?. And how many people are just waiting to be able to say to us,
“I know that God loves me, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
Filed under: Bible, Missional Living | Tags: actions, Bible Study, Christianity, Forgiveness, Grace, Jesus, John 8, Love, loving others, non-verbal, posture
Lately, I’ve been thinking through the the concept of posture. By definition posture means “The attitude of the body.” It’s essentially the non-verbals we give off in any situation. As a follower of Jesus, my posture is many times (if not always) more important then what I say. I was reminded of the story in John 8 of the woman caught in adultery:
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court,
they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.”
“Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”
They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.
But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.
Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either Go From now on sin no more.”
Picture the scene, the woman having just been caught in a very compromising position is brought into the temple courts, most likely with her clothes thrown about her, racked with tears because she knows the penalty for her actions is stoning. She’s thrown to the ground at Jesus’ feet, sobbing, unable to look up from the ground at her accusers, waiting for the stones to fall.
A few things stand out to me. First, obviously, where is the guy? We could jump into that one, but I think it’s enough to say that he is unfairly let off the hook.
Second, is Jesus’ response. Not only does He end up defending her, but it seems so much deeper then that. Look at the posture Jesus takes. He kneels down into the dirt next to the woman. Could he actually be sheltering and protecting her? His very body is made into a covering for her guilt and shame.
I was always hung up on what Jesus wrote in the dirt, seems like an odd time to be doodling or making lists. But from this perspective it makes more sense. What if Jesus was writing a message to the woman who’s eyes were locked on the ground? Could it have said something as simple as “I’m here for you” or “Trust me, I’ll take care of this?”
Jesus takes the position as an advocate for that woman. He’s not so much worried about what she has done and how wrong she is, as He is concerned with her as a person; protecting her, pleading for her, and offering freedom to her.
Wow! Obviously, this has huge ramifications for how followers of Jesus should treat others. Jesus wasn’t condoning her behavior. Nowhere in Scripture does He say “Sleep around, have fun, no big deal,” but He is esteeming her as a person who is loved by God regardless of her mistakes or bad decisions. That is the essence of grace. And that is what Jesus-followers are called to offer the world. Our posture must be one of love and of advocacy. We must be willing to side with the condemned, the voiceless, the “sinners”. Not because we agree with what they have done, but because we know what God has done for them.
