What if I told you that on this past Sunday I met with a Christian mentor of mine at Starbucks and on the way to church I took some time to stop and talk to a homeless guy walking down the street with groceries in his hands to see if he wanted a ride. Sounds super-Christian right…The Starbucks, church on Sunday mornings, and talking to homeless people. Basic Christian.
But is that even what a Christian should look like? I’m starting to think not.
I did a quick U-turn, rehearsed what I would say and I did it. I asked if I could give him a ride. All to his easy reply:
“No, I’m just going up the street.”
What? He doesn’t want a ride, that’s the only way I had prepared for the conversation to go as I psyched myself up for this conversation 5 minutes ago when I passed him the first time.
My only reaction was to ask him again.
“You don’t want a ride?”
“No, it’s really not that far up the road.”
Feeling defeated I proceeded to smile and tell him to have a good day. Completely genuine and wanting to help yet completely perplexed.
Maybe he didn’t want to climb up into my jeep and he really was just going down the street, maybe he didn’t want me to know where he stayed, maybe he didn’t want me to see that there was alcohol in his sack making me think what he knows most people already think about him. Or maybe he didn’t need a ride. But that would mean I was wrong. That would mean that what I thought he needed from me and the help I was offering him was actually no help to him at all.
We assume we know what’s best for people but a lot of the time we don’t even know what people really need or if we do know what they need we don’t know how to get it to them. We know starving children in Africa need food but we can’t just place an order for Papa John’s. We know people need to know that there is a God who loves them but we have no idea how to get them to see that. Or maybe we just see someone crying and wish we could help but don’t even know where to begin.
That’s the reality we live in. That as good as people try to be, as good as Christians try to be, even on our good days we usually don’t look quite as good as the Jesus we read about.
So what are left to do?
We start to look like the disciples who couldn’t cast out the demon and Jesus had to do it for them. It says they came to Him in private and asked why they couldn’t do it. He then starts talking to them about faith. They had seen Jesus cast out demons before, He stayed calm and commanded the demons. So that’s likely what they tried. They tried to stay calm at first, as they confidently commanded the demons in Jesus name to get out of the person they were trying to help. They either didn’t know what that person needed or they didn’t know how to get it to them or in this case, get it out of them. So they go to Jesus and He explains faith to show His disciples that they were completely missing it. He tries to show them that if they really knew what they were doing then they could tap into the faith and power He offers and they could do anything, even move mountains.
Maybe we are completely missing it. Maybe we can try so hard to do the right things that it becomes about doing things and not about loving people.
There’s another version of that story in the Bible and in it Jesus says that those demons can’t be cast out without prayer and fasting. Were they ready to hear that? I know I wasn’t after I realized I was no help to that man walking down the street. I was willing to turn the car around because I had some time to spare before church but what if I would’ve been in a hurry or not yet had my cup of coffee and wasn’t in a good mood. Looking back I think what that man needed from me was equivalent to prayer and fasting. Maybe I should’ve killed the engine, got out of my car and walked up and introduced myself. But that’s not as simple as we would like it. It’s more uncomfortable than staying in our comfort zone.
We are called to love God and love others. Love always comes at a cost or a sacrifice. So are we willing to sacrifice? When you wake up in the morning you are called to sacrifice time, plans and your comfort zone; you are called to sacrifice everything. To take yourself off the priority list for your day is the only way God and others have a shot at becoming your priority.
So what do people need? People need Jesus. Jesus Himself said that He was here to sacrifice and to be a sacrifice for others. That meant His plans, His relationships, His “me time”, His vacations, even His future.
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” – Matthew 20:28
So maybe that’s where we start, by not trying to do stuff that we know Christians should do but instead by trying to be like Christ and sacrifice whatever it takes to get people what we know they need, the saving grace of Jesus Christ. And when we don’t know what they need, we try to get to know them and really love them, not just love being the person that helped them.
loganbyrd 