I think one of the coolest things about Jesus was that he was often just one of the guys. He gave his disciples the freedom to make their own mistakes…and loved them as he corrected them. He didn’t always tell them ahead time when they would fail. But he loved them when they did. He didn’t always spell everything out for them. Instead, he allowed them to make the journey and fill in the blanks as they went. That’s part of the learning process for all of us.
I’ve been reading “Love Does” by Bob Goff recently and he tells a story about himself in the first chapter that really puts this into perspective.
At the beginning of his junior year, Bob decided that he’d had enough of high school and it was time to move to Yosemite National Park and spend his life climbing the cliffs. After telling his friend Randy that he was leaving, Randy told him to wait a minute. Next thing you know Randy returns to Bob with a backpack, a sleeping bag, and the words, “Bob, I’m with you.”
So off they went. After days of applying for jobs at Yosemite and getting turned down, “rather than feeding Bob’s discouragement or saying “I told you so,” Randy fed Bob’s soul with words of truth and perspective. “Bob, you can do this thing if you want. You have the stuff it takes to pull it off. These guys don’t know what they’re missing. Let’s try a few more places. Either way Bob, I’m with you.”
After striking out a few more times, Bob ultimately decided on his own that it was time to go home and finish high school.
You see, Randy believed in him and was committed to him. Bob wasn’t a project, Bob was Randy’s friend.
I felt like this was the ministry we’ve been serving in for 2 weeks with the men at Hogar Crea. We weren’t there to judge. We were there to love. We were there to tell them “I’m with you.”
For 2 weeks we built relationships with them. We showed the love of Christ the best we knew how. We shared our testimonies, we did bible studies, we worshiped together…but in the end, God did the work. We just showed up. Their past history of drugs and alcohol didn’t matter. Their current circumstances didn’t make us look at them any different. They became our brothers and I just got to be “one of the guys” and share Christ’s love with them and let them know that He is with us.
This is what Bob writes in his book, “faith isn’t about knowing all of the right stuff or obeying a list of rules. It’s something more, something more costly because it involves being present and making a sacrifice.
Perhaps that’s why Jesus is sometimes called Immanuel – “God with us.” I think that’s what God had in mind, for Jesus to be present, to just be with us. It’s also what he has in mind for us when it comes to other people.
“The brand of love Jesus offers is more about presence than undertaking a project. It’s a brand of love that doesn’t just think about good things, or agree with them, or talk about them. What I learned from Randy reinforced the simple truth that continues to weave itself into the tapestry of every great story: Love Does.”
Next time you want to share Christ’s love with someone, just be one of the guys.
