{“A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter-two years old!- to men interested in sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her on in a night. She had to do it, she said. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable- I’m required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman. At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried, “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.” What struck me about this story is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from Him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when He lived on Earth no longer feel welcome among His followers. What has happened?”}
I saw it in the face of the guy at the restaurant in El Salvador and in the eyes of the woman in the coffee shop in Cambodia. A conversation will somehow begin and we will find ourselves discussing great topics and laughing through stories of our adventures. And then comes the question…
“Why are you here in _________?”
“I’m a Christian here on an 11 month mission trip.” I would reply.
The guy at the restaurant rolled his eyes and said, “oh shit” while the girl at the coffee shop began to try to shut down the conversation.
That’s all I said.
I didn’t say “let me tell you about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” I didn’t ask them to sign my bible or repeat a prayer… I simply answered their question to what I was doing.
But it’s the word that has left a bad taste in so many people’s mouths.
“Christian.”
Then I realized that when I say I am a Christian and people groan… It has nothing to do with Jesus, and everything to do with His people.
Christians have become the laughing stock of the world. We are a joke. In movies we are the ones being made fun of. We are portrayed as the Amanda Bynes in the movie “Easy A”. We sit in a circle with an acoustic guitar and talk about all the “sinners” of the school and the decisions they are making. We are Jamie in “A Walk to Remember” who wears sweaters and long denim dresses and is forbidden to even speak to the “bad boy.” We are viewed as the sticklers in Footloose who don’t allow dancing and see it as corrupt.
{A man once said “ It’s easier for me to get sex on the street from another man than it is to get a hug from someone in the church.”}
Christians aren’t recognized as people who do the very thing Jesus did: feed, love, and clothe. Instead we are recognized as people who don’t make cakes for people that are gay. This shouldn’t be.
I don’t blame people who don’t like these Christians. I don’t blame people for having a skewed view of what it means to believe in Jesus and live that out. My own family even jokes around with me sometimes with quotes like “How are you doing trying to convert the world?” and “Should you say that cuss word? Christians don’t do that” Christians have given this fake self front like we have it all together only to be proved as a hypocrite when we mess up. Trust me friend, I say this because I’ve been there. I have been on both sides.
Here’s a bite for ya… The Gospel is that we messed up, we all mess up and will continue to mess up. But Jesus is good and completes and exceeds all the areas we fall short in. Grace abounds to the point where taking advantage of it seems ridiculous. It’s not for freedom to keep on sinning, it’s a gift to live in freedom from the very things that God knows cripple us, harm us, and only leave us desperate and dry.
People are overwhelmed by and accept God’s grace when they realize they are loved and can receive it right where they are… not when they are expected to clean up their act in order to come before God. It’s not that people don’t want Jesus… some really do. We just do a DARN good job at turning them away from Him.
He spent His time with the drunkard. He sat and talked with the prostitute. It seems that we keep getting things confused and forget it’s the ones who lived by rules are those who Jesus wanted to sit down and shut up because their hearts are no different.
A Christian is someone who believes Jesus is who He says He is and enters into a loving relationship with the Father through Him. A Christian is someone who displays the Gospel in everyday life. Yet so many Christians would rather live their life as a teacher’s pet instead of a son or daughter. So many Christians would rather tell on you and tell you what you are doing wrong instead of admit that they are actually the same way. We all are. Mess up’s as people, undeserving of grace yet so freely given it.
Last month in Guatemala a man came stumbling in the church drunk and I watched as the Pastor kicked him out. Filled with anger I grabbed His hand and took him to get dinner. Again a drunk teenager came to our youth night, eyes filled with tears, and I watched as no men of the church looked his way until our guys on the Race wrapped him in love and embraced him.
I didn’t become a Christian because of the man who carried the cross down the strip of Panama City Beach yelling. I didn’t want Jesus because of the girl all put together in High School told me I needed Him. And I SURE as heck didn’t give my life to Christ because of the girls at a church who laughed at me when I was sick in the bathroom with a hangover.
I wanted Jesus because I was overwhelmed when someone told me that just as I was… Jesus knowingly and lovingly still carried the cross and still wanted me.
So stop withholding cakes from people because they make decisions that are different than yours. Stop withholding love from the people who need it just as much as you do, and stop trying to shove something on people that was never intended to be forced upon them.
If you are gay… you are loved.
If you are straight… you are loved.
If you are black… you are loved.
If you are white… you are loved.
If you are muslim… you are loved.
If you are buddhist… you are loved.
And the list goes on.
You are loved.
Exactly where you are… you are STILL loved.
After that crazy night out.. you are still loved.
After you divorced your husband… you are still loved.
To the Christian: let people not know you by your lofty words and accusations, but by how fiercely you loved.
THAT is how you represent Jesus.
