A few days ago, I spoke with a very dear friend of mine who is in the midst of quite an incredible journey. She packed some belongings a few weeks ago, loaded them into her pickup truck, and headed west from the Chicago area all the way to the west coast of California.
While she has seen many beautiful things on this journey, the purpose of this trip was not for pleasure or mere sight-seeing.
While she is taking care of some very important business on the way, this is not a business trip.
She didn't have a finely tuned itinerary in place before she left.........She had more of a general list of places she would camp out for the night.......or two......or three, before leaving for her next slightly vague destination.
Her master plan?........To simply follow wherever she felt that God was leading her, and in doing so, to visit the lowest of the low wherever she might find them, showing them love, compassion, acceptance, empathy, an ear to listen, and a heart to share.
Along with her, she brought a bag of smooth, flat rocks. Upon these rocks, she had inscribed various words such as "Faith,"........."Hope,"..........."Peace,"........."Love,"............ Sometimes there'd be entire bible verses written on them, featuring words of encouragement or examples of God's love for all who might look to Him in their time of need.
Throughout this journey of hers, she has sat and talked with countless people.........Complete and total strangers...........The homeless.........The addicted........The hungry.......The forgotten.......Those who have been completely rejected by society as a whole.
After engaging these people in genuine, heartfelt conversation..........After showing them that she truly did care..........She'd reach into her little bag of rocks and pick one to leave with them.......One that had written upon it a word or verse that pertained to what they had said to her.......One they could reach into their pocket for and pull out.........whenever they felt the need.......to remind them of this beautiful, kind woman who God had somehow sent to them to speak the words they desperately needed to hear on that day.
She wasn't invited to sit down next to them..........she simply did.
She didn't wait for a team of board members to plan her itinerary..........she simply left.
She didn't put the comfort of being in her own home, being safe, dry, and warm ahead of her desire to go where she believed she was called...........she simply followed.
You see, my friend Katie is a rare breed. She is one of the few people I've met over the course of my life who lives life intentionally - with a purpose - firmly believing that every day is a new opportunity to make a difference in the world around her, and who actively watches for the opportunities God places in front of her on a daily basis.........Many times on an hourly basis.
She is one of those rare individuals who, just by being who she's called to be, makes me wish quite often that I was as committed to the cause as she is.
We, as American Christians, more often than not become so very comfortable in our beautiful homes, driving our beautiful cars, and living our fairly private lives with our healthy, well fed families, that we forget there's an entire world of people out there who are hurting desperately, and who would just love for someone to sit down next to them, talk to them, and let them know that somebody cares.
Don't get me wrong.........we feel bad when we see others who are hurting. We want things to work out well for them. We want them to heal, to recover, to become whole again.........But do we care enough to go 5 minutes out of our way to help?
From the outside, this is how many people outside of the church view Christians:
We're very quick to condemn their lifestyles.........We're very quick to tell them what they're doing wrong.........Often times - and to our own shame - we're very quick to feel that we're living lives that are blessed by God because, well, we're just good people............while looking down upon those who don't appear to be blessed in the same ways, and silently wondering what they did wrong to bring that upon themselves.
When I look at what true faith, true belief, and true religion should look like, James 1:27 comes to mind........
"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."
In those days, orphans and widows were among the poorest of the poor. They were the homeless, the hungry, and the forgotten ones.
I know that my friend Katie would probably shy away from the idea of me writing a blog which compares her life and actions to the rest of the church, and finding us lacking while praising her for her efforts. She would say that God, not her, deserves all of the credit, honor, and glory for whatever small task she may accomplish while here on earth...........But in doing so, she would be simply proving my point once again.
If we, as the church, spent as much time as we could find being there for others who are hurting..........If we simply sat down next to someone and listened.........not merely reciting memorized bible verses..............not giving them generic answers for genuine, heartfelt questions which arise from horribly complex, painful circumstances..........not condemning them in our hearts before even knowing their story.........If we looked for opportunities on a daily basis to be who God has called us to be in the lives of people who have been rejected by society..........How much more interested would people outside of the church be in what we might have to say about our faith? How much more weight would they place upon our words? How much more willing would they be to step inside of our churches?
You see, what we've done wrong is that we've allowed ourselves to become far too comfortable within our clean, predictable, relatively affluent little worlds to be of any good when it comes to being light, salt, and life in the midst of a cold, dark, bitter world.
Before we can be anything to the world around us.........We must first be there for the world around us.
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If you'd like to learn more about Katie, I'm sure she'd love it if you stopped by her website and said hi. She can be found at http://clingtotherock.blogspot.com/
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