Ok, I know most people only read what seems interesting to them. I know when God or Jesus comes up, most people just go on to something else. I don’t blame you. I am not going to say I don’t understand, because I do. The problem is we know this, but we think if we just “preach it”, then God will take care of the rest. There isn’t much consideration for the listener. Most christians think it’s just important to “do our job”, I guess.
I saw a guy today standing on the corner by Roseville auction. He was old, gray haired, gray pork chop side burns with a big old time family bible in his hand, shaking it and yelling about something. No one was listening, but he didn’t care. His buddy was standing next to him trying to pass out tracts. I watched him for a good 5 minutes, wondering what the people arround him were thinking. I can pretty safely say I know what he was thinking, because at one time that was me. But what bothered me the most is what were these people, who passed by him earlier today thinking about now. I mean, do they even remember the experience, or did they chalk it up as another, “I passed by a religious fanatic today sceaming about something.” Did it really matter?
There is a lyric in a church hymn from way back called “Old Rugged Cross”. The 2nd verse says “O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
has a wondrous attraction for me.” So despised by the world, I wonder how much of this is our fault. How often in trying to do the “work” of God, we alienate those who really needed to find out about the “wondrous attraction”.
I am not here to tell you how God works, or how he wants to get a message across. If you feel He wants you to stand on a corner and scream your lungs out, have at it. But how often have we become self made martyrs, when God had another way.
The apostle Paul, writing to the people at Corinth said “If I spoke with tongues of men and of angels, but had not Love, I have become an annoying gong or clanging cymbal.” People know when we mean what we say. When we fall for someone special in our life, you can see the attraction. It is obvious to everyone around us, in our eyes, the faces we make, the silly laughter for no reason, the enthusiasm in our talk, the conversations that always seem to go back to this special person I met a week ago, that I stayed on the phone with for 2 hours and still wanted to see them for breakfast the next day. When we find a “wondrous attraction” in our life, it spills out of us like too much wine in a small wine glass, all over the table, staining up the linen and making a wonderful mess all over our lives. It is obvious, and beautiful.
Jesus said at the last dinner he had on earth that the world will know we are his by our LOVE. Love is alot harder than screaming at someone you don’t know about a God that hates them and is “sendin’ dem to hell ahh!”. Love is a lot harder than shallow words from an empty soul. Love is a lot harder than clanging a cymbal. Love is a lot harder than religion.