I was talking to my friend Jennifer Miele.
Gosh I have learned a lot from her.
Respect her a ton.
Great at yoga, great a laughing.
Wisdom exudes from her pours.
She was talking about community. That maybe it’s less about calling people out, and calling people into (which is definitely needed at times don’t get me wrong); but maybe more about learning how to have grace with each other and learning to fight for one another. Man that’s something I want to learn. She talked about how it’s easy to slip into a place of hypocrisy and pride when we choose to point the finger. That’s a struggle for me. Especially being in leadership this year. Thinking I’m there to fix problems, rather than love people.
I have another friend named Sydney Sample.
Sometimes I stare at her. She thinks it’s creepy.
But I do it because I want to learn how she lives/interacts with people.
How she chooses to love people so well.
Drunks love her. She is drawn to the outcast, the forgotten, the marginalized in society. She sees them for who they are. Past their character flaws. She doesn’t see: Gay, Ladyboy, Bum, Prostitue, or Drug-user.
She sees Jesus in disguise.
She sees the least of these as a chance to love Jesus.
So I stare. It’s hard not to. Plus I stare cause she has great hair. It’s wavy.
We always want to point out the crap in the person next to us. Makes us feel better about our own stuff. That’s why we watch reality television. Are you kidding me? Who “Flava Flav� is trying to get with on this weeks episode is crap television…but it sure makes me feel better about my life.
Suspend reason for a moment. Pretend I own a house…and I’m not just couch hopping.
Here’s my made up, tacky analogy.
It’s like thinking my neighbor’s garbage stinks worse than my own. They never take it to the street to get picked up on time and the smell filters over toward my house. In reality, I become distracted by problems to fix around the houses nearby…that I forget it’s trash Tuesday and I need to take my own garbage to the sidewalk. I let it sit and fester instead of focusing on the solution of giving it over to the trash man.
And the argument in Christian circles can then become, “well if I don’t call out my neighbor’s stench, then who will? We are obligated as Christians to point that sin out in others as right?� Naa. That’s not the point of it. The Holy Spirit will do the convicting.
We are called to love.
Cover over it will grace and humility.
Show a different way by our actions.
Sincerely,
A big fan of Jennifer ‘talks with her hands’ Miele and Syd ‘the kid’ Sample
