I was on Facebook tonight just doing my normal nightly stalking(don't act like you don't read your newsfeed and click on random people and explore their lives), when I noticed someone that I haven't thought of or seen anything about in a while. It was kind of one of those moments where you think "did that person fall off of the face of the planet?" And it got me thinking. Where did I know this person from? Church. We had gone to church together in the past. So why didn't I know anything about them. I honestly didn't know much about them to begin with and definitely didn't know where they had gone. From what I could tell from the person's facebook profile this person has fallen into difficult times in their life and fallen away from the person that I had barely known from the past. (Disclaimer: I am totally aware that I have no right to judge this person's life, what they have done, or anything like that. God is the only one who knows what has happened in their lives. I honestly have no idea except what I saw on facebook. I am not saying I judge this person in any way for the life they are living because I honestly don't know anything about it. But the point is that I don't go to church with this person anymore.) But doesn't this happen so often? There are people that we go to church with, that we worship with that we know nothing about! But my major conviction was about the in between. I knew that they had gone to church with me, and I knew the slightest bit about their life now(based off of what I could tell from their facebook profile), but what had happened in between? Where had this person slipped through the cracks? Another conviction was how many have slipped through the cracks without me ever noticing?
It was kind of crazy when I really sat and thought about this. I thought of so many people from my past youth groups, college groups, kid ministries, and even adults in the church that just simply aren't there. And I am not talking about people who left to join other churches. I am talking about people who simply aren't involved in church at all anymore. There are a lot of side arguments and discussions that could stem off of this subject, but those topics are not what I am talking about tonight.
I am talking about love. I know what you are thinking....that came from left field. But it didn't. God calls us to love his people, right? He calls us to share the love of Christ, right? This idea of loving people doesn't only mean going on mission trips overseas or volunteering at the local community service center or even serving in every possible ministry that your church offers. Loving people is so much closer to home than that. It is investing in people's lives. Not only strangers lives that you will probably never see again or your friends and families lives that you love so dearly because of the bonds you share with them. But this also means investing in everyone's life that you come in contact with. And I think the best place for this to start is the church. We worship with these people, yet we don't know anything about them. I am not saying that you need to know everyone who ever stepped in your church's door life story(although that would be awesome), but stepping out of your comfort zone and knowing your church. Loving people like Christ did and not letting anyone slip through the cracks. I don't remember a time in the bible where Christ left anyone out in the dust or didn't invest in lives. In fact he completely went out of his way. And he got into people's business...in a good way of course. He knew what was going on in people's lives. He never left a conversation at "hey. how are you? good." So as we continue to strive to conform to the likeness of the image of Christ, start by loving people in your church. Don't let the people who worship beside you fall through the cracks. But don't stop there. Make it a lifestyle. Love and invest in every person that you come in contact with. Be intentional when you meet people and in your everyday conversations. Love the unlovable. Be Christ to the dark world.
Why? You may have been the most involved person in your church your whole life and never needed this love shown to you. (haha...not) You may have never had someone reach out and invest in your life but somehow you are doing alright. Or you may have been the one who fell through the cracks. Or you may have been the one who started to slip through the cracks, but had someone that resembled Christ pull you out. It doesn't matter who you are. As long as you have a burning passion for the Almighty God who saved you from the depths of your life, then you are called to love. And it shouldn't be a matter of this is what I'm supposed to do, but a matter of what can I do. What can I do for my God and for his children as an out pour of the love I have for Him in my life? How can God's love overflow in my life into every area so that I may share this love with the world? How can my life bring glory to God, my Father?
Just think about this as you encounter people in your life. It may be the person you are paying for your 14th Sonic drink of the week or the person that sits on the back pew on Sunday morning. Show God's love. And as usual, I don't even come close to counting myself out on this. I noticed and am writing about it because I saw a lack of it in my life. Feel free to keep me accountable on this as well as your fellow believers.
Thank you for reading and sorry it has been so long since my last post. Shout out to my brother-in-law for continuously reminding me I have a blog. Out of Place is not longer Out of Order.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. -1 John 4:7-9
"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." -Philippians 2:1-4
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