Have your attention? What if we really did represent our Jesus, what would that look like? Are we even suppose to? The other night I caught a glimpse of what I think it might look like… and it even felt right too. This month we have had the opportunity to serve at a club for kids who live on the street. Basically we just go, hang out, and eat with them. It seems so small but it has been great to just be friends with them.
So back to the other night…. my teammate Sarah had this great idea that she wanted to have a FEAST in the park and invite these kids and all the homeless people around. The idea came from Luke 14 where it says “… but when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you…â€�
So we got together and we put together a feast! There were sandwiches, chips, fruit, juice, cookies, bread, and whole lot of people! At first the idea just wasn’t in me… I really didn’t want to go and just hope for people to show up. Well we went out the previous night and handed out bags of food and an invitation to our picnic in the park! So when we started people just came walking up and throughout the day people came and we went out and just handed out food. The excitement on the faces of these people was INSANE! This is what it means to serve. This is what it means to reach the “least of these.â€� This is what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Now if I could figure out how to do this everyday things might just start changing. I think this relates to that die to self that we read about in Luke… “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.â€�
Paul Young, author of The Shack, writes in a unique way about dying to self. He says: “My (Jesus) life was not meant to be an example to copy. Being my follower is not trying to ‘be like Jesus,’ it means your independence is killed. I came to give you life, real life, my life. We will come and live our life inside you, so that you begin to see with our eyes, and hear with our ears, and touch with our hands, and think like we do (151).� For whatever it is worth I think I understand a little more and excited to represent Him in every area.
