The other day someone very close to me said something that really caught my attention. Before I dive in, here is a little backstory.
Recently I have been very busy and overwhelmed with juggling between schoolwork, fundraising, and my job. “The struggle in the juggle is real”-Lindsay Sullivan. Along with juggling all of these everyday struggles, I have to find a job for the summer before I leave for the World Race. I prayed to God and asked Him if He could help me find a job over the summer, one that would glorify Him and also provide me with sufficient funds. Of course, the Lord provided. The very next day my friend called me and told me there was a job availability at a golf course she is working at as a beer cart attendant! Immediately I was ecstatic! The Lord has answered my prayers and has given me a job over the summer that pays well and gives me an opportunity to conversate! Little did I know that this praise to God would turn out to be a reason for someone to condemn me.
I shared this news with someone very close to me, and the first thing that came out of their mouth was not praise…wait why was it not praise? This is such good news. Instead they simply stated, “Do you know what being a beer cart girl entails?, because that would be very ungodly of you to be a beer cart girl, you have to flirt with older men and drink alcohol with them to make any money.”
I have noticed that some nonbelievers tend to find every single reason about you that they can prove to be ungodly because they believe that if they can prove you are an ungodly person, then God must not be all He is cracked up to be. FYI, Jesus is all that and a bag of chips! I am the one who is not all I am cracked up to be. Let me be the VERY FIRST one to tell you, the SOLE reason I need Jesus is because I am a downright sinner. Yea, you heard it here first people, I sin…hardcore. Every day. This, my friends, is exactly why I need Jesus, because I am a sinner. It is not news to me that I am ungodly because if I was godly, I would be GOD, but I strive to be a child of Christ and I am working at it every day.. Now that THAT is out of the way, let’s continue on.
Let us take a peek into who Jesus is and who Jesus hung out with.
Matthew (yea the guy from the gospel, who preaches about Jesus): Before Matthew met Jesus he was a dirty, nasty, mean, hateful tax collector. Basically, a tax collector back in the old days was a guy who betrayed his own people and stole all their money for himself. Yea definitely not someone I would want to hang out with! But guess who did want to hang out with Him? Jesus. Why would Jesus want to hang out with such a sinner? Because Jesus loved Matthew, no matter what Matthew did or how he acted, Jesus loved him and wanted him to be free of his sinful life. And Jesus called HIM. No qualifications or judgement, just himself. Boom. Jesus is friends with a sinner.
Zacchaeus: Zacchaeus was a CHIEF tax collector. Now we already know what tax collectors do, but Zacchaeus was the chief. He oversaw all of the tax collectors. He was a downright thief, oh and he was filthy filthy rich. I bet you can’t guess what happens next. Jesus hung out with Zacchaeus and had DINNER with him. Come on Jesus? Really? Zacchaeus is a nasty, self-absorbed crook. He does not deserve the time of day. Wrong. Zacchaeus deserves to be loved by Jesus. We all do.
“When we recognize that he is our friend because he wants to be, not because we deserve it, everything changes” – Rich Wilkerson Jr.
The main theme here is that Jesus made it known in the bible that He loved to hang out where the broken people were. Jesus was attracted to the people who did not believe in Him. Modern day Jesus would love going to the clerb let me tell you (and no it is not just to show off His moves we would be so unworthy of that). Jesus loves ALL people. Jesus wants to reach ALL people and He uses us to reach those people and to be a light in their life. Did Jesus flirt with Zacchaeus and Matthew in order to get them to follow him? I sure hope not. Do I have to flirt and take drinks with golfers in order to make money and spread the love of God? Absolutely not. Are believers allowed to go to places where there are broken people that need to know they do not need to sin in order to feel adequate? You best believe it.
There is a social stigma that believers have to act a certain way, talk a certain way, dress a certain way, and work in certain jobs. I am here to tell you that we are called to Jesus. Wherever that may be. I am here to tell you that I sometimes swear (more like a lot of times, forgive me JC), I make the wrong decisions, I sin, and I fall into temptation. This is exactly why I need Jesus. If there were qualifications to be loved by Jesus, then I would fail every one of them. Good thing we are all qualified and we do not have to prove our eligibility. We are already saved. We are already loved. So no, I am not godly, and I never will be because those shoes are already filled by God himself, but I am loved and cherished by a God who teaches me how to be a better version of myself every day and that is the only person I will take judgment from.
I’m going to take that beer cart position. I’m going to use it as an opportunity to spread the love of Jesus. And I’m gonna rock it. Take that society.
