I met Cindy this morning at the Y. She was working out with a trainer and just looked so happy to be there. Cindy worked hard through her entire workout and talked to pretty much everyone that passed her. I have no idea what age she might be, but it was clear to see she had the heart and fascination of a child. Cindy has down syndrome and this is not the first time I’ve seen her around the gym.
My workout today was a pretty brutal one and I was focused on my task at hand. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone and I was driven to kick my own butt and pay for my last week spent in stretching pants. It wasn’t until I passed by Cindy’s bike nearing the end of my workout that she said, “Man, you work really hard.” I couldn’t help but smile. All my focus was shifted when she reached out to talk to me.
It was weird to watch all this alpha male confidence just melt off of me when she said those words. We traded the typical small talk, but then she just continued to rattle off questions that reminded me of my trips to elementary classrooms, and I just felt important. I probably talked to her for a little over five minutes before returning to my workout, but I felt like I could keep talking with this girl for the rest of the morning. For a few minutes I saw what Jesus talked about with this idea of faith like a child.
Finally, the conversation came around to what we do and why we’re in Dallas. In the spirit of childhood, I just told her that I help kids off the streets and tell people about Jesus. She liked that answer and decided she would do that too.
Loving people and loving God isn’t some huge theological doctrine that we have to be smart enough to figure out. We have scholars and theologians for that stuff (and praise God because that’s not for me). There’s no formula to loving people. It’s just like Cindy said. It’s something she’s just deciding to do. Want to know the first and most important step to becoming a missionary? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.
I guess it actually is a three step process. Love God. Love others. Love yourself (it may be third, but it may be the hardest). Everything else is just commentary…
