You Are Loved, Too

Why is this guy still talking to me...?

I admit that I strongly dislike mingling and small talk with people I do not know too well. I'm an obvious introvert and don't care much for awkward conversations with people I will never see again. My new husband is the exact opposite. He thrives on conversations with new people and can't pass up an opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with the cashiers at WalMart. He's the life of the party; I'm the person who quietly talks to some close friends, away from the center of focus.

Imagine my discomfort, then, when an associate from a jewelry store inside Polaris insisted on talking to me as I was passing by. All I wanted was to pick up a new "I am Loved" button in a new language to add to my collection(http://www.iamloved.org/), but the salesman spotted me and approached me before I could hurry on my way.
I hope he's not going to try to convince me to buy a diamond ring, I could help but to think. The man instead asked me a whole bunch of questions about my personal life. Why did I collect these buttons? Did I know any foreign languages? Greek and Hebrew? Why those ones? Where was I going to college? What was I studying?
There was a slight pause in the conversation when I told him that I was pursuing a degree in Biblical studies. A flicker on interest seemed to shimmer in his eyes.
"What do you want to do with that?"
A little agitated with his endless supply of questions, I politley answered and made up an excuse about time. That's always a good, American excuse.

As I was walking away, it suddenly hit me that I had the opportunity to share what I believed with that jeweler. I didn't even have to set up the road to Calvary myself: All I had to do was ask him if he had ever read the Bible. I was rather shocked that the idea of telling him about what Jesus was doing in my life never had even occurred to me. I told him that I wanted to teach others about the Bible, but I didn't even take the time to teach him about the Bible.

I've been learning this summer to view every single circumstance with spiritual lenses on. The present world is not solely physical. Everything that is physical also has a spiritual entanglement. Perhaps things should not even be defined as "physical" or "spiritual." We as Christians need to see the spiritual in every encounter, every conversation, every action. The battle may have already been won, but we have seemed to forgotten that the battle for God's kingdom is still through our efforts joined with our King's.
There is a world filled with a countless number of souls who are headed for hell. Countries try to destroy the message of Jesus Christ because, as Richard Dawkins attests, religion is the weakness and threat to society. YouTube has a "Blasphemy Challenge" where thousands of people deny Christ on video for the rest of the world to see. Somehow, though, we shrug this off and conclude that evangelism is for hyper-Christians like Billy Graham and missionaries like Hudson Taylor.

Matthew 28:19-20, frequently referred to as the "Great Commission" passage, commands Christ followers to make disciples (notice it does not say "believers"-- but that is another topic for another time). The interesting thing about this command is that in the original Greek language is says that Christians should make disciples "as they go." There is no destination.

Some Christians may be called to a career in an organized ministry, but all Christians are called to full-time ministry.

Witnessing is not an option. It is not a "spiritual gift." It is not a task set aside for a select group. It is not something that we should wait until "God calls" us to do it. So many times I hear Christians claim that they didn't sense that "God was telling" them to talk to someone about Jesus, so they didn't do it. Claiming this is like saying that they didn't sense God telling them to love someone. Just as God has already told us to love others in Scripture, so also has He already told us to tell others about him in Scripture.

I have been trying to apply this command to witness to others "as I go" throughout my daily life. I now see why Aaron is so eager to talk to the waiter at Southside Diner, the greeter at WalMart, and our next door neighbors. Ever if he is not talking to them about Jesus directly, he is still sending the message that they are valued and worth talking to. I now try to strike up conversation, even though I am still a little uncomfortable with it. And, everytime I walk by that jewelry store, I look for that jeweler who challenged me. I intend to finish our conversation where we last left off and communicate to him the message on the buttons that I had previously ignored. I think I'll even approach him first myself.

Burn

People are fascinated with fire. Last fall I ventured away from homework one night to attend a bonfire on the campus of my school. Perhaps I simply do not attend enough campus activities, but I was amazed at how many people came to this event. The school events I have participated in have attracted a good number of students, but I had never seen so many students gathered together as I did at this bonfire. As I sat on the cool grass, breathing in the cool, night air and enjoying the company of friends, something in particular struck me about fires.

Do you know why people are so drawn to fires? Not because they create light, nor because they radiate heat. The number one reason why people are attracted to fire is because they simply like to watch things burn. It was not long into the evening before students began throwing anything expendable into the large bonfire. People would gather around to watch the flames devour a marshmallow. Exclamations pierced the night air just because the searing heat quickly contracted a Styrofoam cup into a little ball. Something about burning things fascinates people.

John Wesley said that if you set yourself on fire, all of England will come to see you burn. Just as there is a fascination with fire burning wood, there is a fascination with people who allow themselves to become consumed by the fire of Christ. When you set yourself aflame, people will be curious. They will be drawn to the heat you are radiating and drawn to the light you are emitting, but more than that they will be drawn to the reason why you are burning.

Many people today claim that Jesus was merely a good teacher or a religious figure whose behavior should be modeled. Jesus portrayed some “guidelines” that “spiritual” people should follow. In the end, He may have exemplified an ethical life, but He was nothing more than human. Jesus Himself, however, claimed differently. His own followers thought that their Rabbi was a good, spiritual sage, but they did not have the slightest idea what His role as the Messiah fully implied.
In Luke 9:18-27, Jesus finally revealed His identity as the Christ and its implications. In fact, Jesus focused more on the implications of it in regard to His disciples than He did for Himself.

“If anyone would come after me,” Jesus said, “he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23).

You would think that Jesus would be more interested in explaining the theological significance of His death, the biblical significance of His “Davidic” role, but He instead brushed all that aside. His death and resurrection would enlighten the disciples later. What was important to Jesus now was that His followers understood what their responsibility was in response to His Messianic identity. Ask any Christian today about the significance of Jesus’ identity and they can easily give an accurate answer. But can they explain the significance that has for them outside of their “getting into heaven?”

Ask many non-Christians and they, too, can mirror the responses of a Christian. One of my friends who is very passionate about evangelism once described her surprise about this. “Every unbeliever I have witnessed to knows exactly who Jesus is,” she said. “Somehow we get the idea that Christians are the only ones who know about Jesus’ identity and that once everyone knows that Jesus is God they will fall on their knees and convert.” It seems that just about everyone today, Christians and non-Christians alike, knows who Jesus is. The problem is that those who really do believe that He is the Messiah do not know what that means for them now.

This places believers and non-believers in the same position. One group knows, refuses to believe, and continues to live without interruption, while the other group knows, chooses to believe, and still lives without interruption. Something is wrong. Perhaps our presently construed definition of “atheism” needs modified.Christ has called His followers to live differently by picking up their crosses on a daily basis. Not just on days when they feel like it. Not just when God seems evidently present in their lives. Not just when they are with other Christians who are observing them to make themselves feel better about their own inconsistencies.

Following Christ requires a higher standard. Christians are called to forfeit their lives, to offer themselves on the altar and burn. It is easier for living sacrifices to crawl back down off of the altar when the burning becomes too intense (Rom 12:1). By daily denying and dying to themselves, followers of Christ testify that Jesus really was and still is the Messiah. Christ has not so much saved them from something as He has saved them to something. It all comes down to whether Christians will choose to act on their belief in the true identity of their Messiah and continue to light the night sky as they offer their very lives as living sacrifices.

Erected Walls

"Listen, O Lord, to my prayers. Listen to my desire to be with you, to dwell in your house, and to let my whole being be filled with your presence. But none of this is possible without you. When you are not the one who fills me, I am soon filled with endless thoughts and concerns that divide me and tear me away from you. Even thoughts about you, good spiritual thoughts, can be little more than distractions when you are not their author.

O Lord, thinking about you, being fascinated with theological ideas and discussions, being excited about histories of Christian spirituality and stimulated by thoughts and ideas about prayer and meditation, all of this can be as much an expression of greed as the unruly desire for food, possessions, or power.

Every day I see again that only you can teach me to pray, only you can set my heart at rest, only you can let me dwell in your presence. No book, no idea, no concept or theory will ever bring me close to you unless you yourself are the one who lets these instruments become the way to you.

But Lord, let me at least remain open to your initiative; let me wait patiently and attentively for that hour when you will come and break through all the walls I have erected. Teach me, O Lord, to pray. Amen."

- Henry J. M. Nouwen

Stuck on a Treadmill

4 February

I ran on a treadmill earlier today, but I still feel like I’m on one: Running, but not going anywhere. Tomorrow begins four months of routine. I will be learning about theology, the Bible, God, and religion. I will be teaching students about theology, the Bible, God, and religion. It seems that my whole life has become devoted to the study of theology, the Bible, God, and religion.

Treadmills are so funny to me. The reading device tells you that you have run two miles, when in reality you haven’t even left the workout room. It tells you that you have gone somewhere, when you yourself know that you haven’t budged.

I get good grades, my teachers praise me for my intellect and writings, my boss compliments me on my teaching skills. It would seem as if I were getting somewhere. All of these appear to be indicators that I am maturing, growing smarter and wiser. Despite all of these indicators, glaring at me in red, digital type, I know I’m not moving.

Maybe it’s a good thing I’m not getting anywhere. I’m not quite sure where I should be going.

Walls

If there was a moment during my trip in Israel when I was going to die, I was sure that this would be it. With the rest of the group behind me, I silently slipped through the dark alleys of Bethlehem, guided only by the faded light cast by a few streets lights and the directions from the Palestinian tour guide. Rounding a corner, the only people in sight were two Arab men, intently watching the group pass by from beneath their head scarves. A slight chill rose when I finally reached the wall's checkpoint. How had I somehow managed to be the one leading the group? I wondered. To my relief, I heard our guide rapidly speaking in Arabic to one of the security guards behind me. So far so good.

The silent military check center was intimidating, especially at this time at night. There were no guards inside, and the sensation that I was being watched swept over me... Soon I realized that the Israeli soldiers monitoring the station were tucked away somewhere, watching us through the many security cameras and talking to us through a PDA. After passing through a steel revolving door and a metal detector, I came to the passport check. Two Muslim women up ahead of me were trying to leave the city's walls, but for whatever reason couldn't. The guard started reprimanding them loudly in Arabic and then pulled them aside. Another guard appeared and escorted them through a side door marked by a warning sign unreadable to me. My turn. The security guard glowered at me as he glanced at my passport, then motioned for me to continue.

As I exited the check station and neared the final exit, the graffiti plastered all over the wall struck me hard. There had been artwork, political statements, and posters all over the wall surrounding the rest of the city, but none had been as explicitly honest as this. The one that remains etched in my memory is a simple sentence sloppily scrolled across the wall in red spray paint: “Jesus will destroy this wall.”Safe on the bus once more, this single sentence turned in my head over and over. My memory kept returning to what had stunned me in Nazareth only a few days earlier. While walking along the streets there, our tour guide pointed out a peculiar plant growing up a telephone pole. “This is a mustard plant,” he remarked. He broke open the pod and showed us the tiny seed granules. Then, very casually and off-handedly, he added, “This grows in crazy places.”After continuing a little ways, we saw another mustard shrub. I had to do a double take to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me. This mustard plant was growing through a wall. As small as this plant was, it was somehow strong enough to penetrate a stone wall and start crumbling it. I was floored. If enough of those plants started infiltrating that wall, they could easily break it down.

Jesus once said that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed (Mt 13:31, Lk 13:18). A farmer planted it in his garden and “it grew and became a tree.” The funny thing about this is that mustard plants are not trees. They’re shrubs. Although their external shaft may be small, they have incredibly strong root systems that grow to be twice as large as the visible plant itself. Interestingly, Isaiah 53:2 describes Jesus as a tender shoot whose roots grew out of a dry ground. Jesus declared that God's kingdom had come. He broke down gender and racial walls by talking to a Samaritan woman at a well and healing another in her "unclean" hometown. He broke down walls when He touched the untouchable, healed the unhealable, and loved the unloveable. Jesus even literally broke down the "wall" in the temple that separated man from God. Ironically, people in Israel still flock to the Wailing Wall because they believe that it is the closest they can get to God's presence still emanating from the destroyed temple beyond it. Even though Jesus destroyed such walls a long time ago, we've built them back up and have created our own walls in our own minds.

As members of this kingdom, maybe we, too, are supposed to sprout out of this dry ground that is captive to another kingdom. Maybe we are supposed to grow like a small mustard plant and welcome God's presence and power here on earth. Maybe this kingdom of heaven transcends earth’s boundaries and grows into something remarkable. Maybe this kingdom grows in “crazy places” and is capable of breaking down walls – not just physical walls, like the one in Bethlehem, but social, political, religious, and even spiritual walls.

Only when we realize God's kingdom here on this earth can Jesus truly break down walls. Walls may not be visibly crumbling and mustard plants may not be noticeable just yet, but we can be confident that the roots are slowly strengthening...

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility...-Ephesians 2:14