Freedom in Christ.
What does this mean?
God doesn’t live in a box, right?
Minisrty, Missions, Chrstianity, Grace, Love, Unconditional love, The World Race, Trust, Worship…
All these words we put into this box that we think God lives in. Oh, but boy are we wrong. What does ministry really look like? What does freedom in Christ really mean?
A repeating pattern on the race that I have seen is that God does not work by our agendas or plans. In our little American-christian minds we chalk ‘ministry’ up to be these programs: build a house, plant a tree, paint a fence, go to orphanages, pick up trash on the side of the road, teach english to forigen students, perform two hour programs with a drime, a message and maybe a worship song or two, show the Jesus film…and when you’re doing these things you feel good about yourself, accomplished, and good-natured. I believe God is in these things, and they are minisrty. But it seems to me that when we’re not out ‘doing’ these christianese, religious programs-we’re not really doing ministry. And we feel guilty because this is the way we’ve been taught in church.
Can’t minisrty also be hanging out with non-belivers, going to a concert, surfing at the beach in Costa Rica, sitting at Starbucks drinking your soy, white mocha with no whip cream and some caramel syrup, hanging out at the beach, going to the mall, working at a resturaunt, or sitting behind a cubical? Can’t it be walking in down town Manhattan or sitting in Dean and Deluca’s reading a book? Talking to your taxi driver on the way to the movies or an art museum? Getting a tattoo and sharing the love of Christ to the tattoo artist? Going on a road trip with a few close friends? Talking to your waitress at Chili’s?
Christ doesn’t ask us to do two hour programs, teach English, paint houses, or plant a tree. He asks us to take care of the widows and orphans, and to bring Kingdom down to Earth.
How do I do this? How can I make this my life style?
When I go home after this year there aren’t going to be setup programs for me to do everyday. There aren’t going to be people around me telling me that I have to go do this or that. I am going to have complete freedom-the kind of freedom that Christ came to give. Just because I’m not out painting a house or picking up trash doesn’t mean that I’m not doing ministry. I am being ministry everywhere I go and to everyone I see. I am being ministry by the way I talk, and the ‘not casting stones’ attitude-not judging people, because I have just as many planks in my eye as the next person. Loving people as Christ loves them-unconditionaly. Making myself avaliable for anyone in need. Being aware of other people’s stuggles and faults, and loving them in spite of it. I want to be able to seap Jesus out of my pores so much that anyone, at anytime and anywhere knows what I’m all about-Jesus Christ. This to me is being Christ to all people at all times: the tattoo artist, the homeless man, the hopeless pregnant teenage girl, the druggie, the alcoholic, the mother with four children going through a divorce, the husband whose wife just passed away, the child with his hands out asking for money and food to bring back to his family, the girl at the beach, the waitress, the bartender, the single mom, the list goes on and on.
Being Christ instead of doing christianity.
This is how I choose to live.
