"Well, crying isn't gonna bring your dog back . . . unless your tears smell like dog food. So you can either sit there crying and eating can after can of dog food until your tears smell enough like dog food to make your dog come back or you can go out there and find your dog."
- Homer J. Simpson
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The apostle Paul said,
“To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel…” (I Corinthians 9:22-23).What does that mean? Here’s a recent news story that I think illustrates it. Fireman dresses like Spiderman to save boy.
A Thai fireman turned superhero when he dressed up as comic-book character Spider-Man to coax a frightened eight-year-old from a balcony, police said Tuesday. "I told him Spider-Man is here to rescue you, no monsters are going to attack you and I told him to walk slowly towards me as running could be dangerous," Somchai told local television. The young boy immediately stood up and walked into his rescuer's arms, police said.
Pardon the analogy, but isn’t that a lot like what God did? He took on human form, something we were familiar with, so that he could rescue us and take us to God. Jesus was the ultimate missionary. He came to live with us and be like us so that we might be saved. And now we carry on his mission. Paul became like the gentiles to win the gentiles. Our missionaries today become like Africans, or South Americans or even tattooed bikers, so that they might save people. You and I are charged with that same task. How do we do that? How do we become like them in order to save them? We go where they are, like Paul did. He went to the Synagogues, he went to Mars Hill, he went to the marketplace. Wherever people were, Paul went. And wherever he went, he communicated in a language people could understand. To tentmakers, he talked like a fellow tentmaker. To ordinary people, he spoke like an ordinary person. To Jews, he spoke as a Pharisee. To Greeks, he spoke as an educated Roman citizen. It was always the same message, but made understandable for the hearers.
That’s our challenge today. How can we take the same, life-saving, unchanging, hope-filled message of the Gospel, and communicate it in a way that the lost people in your neighborhood will understand it? You can do that. Obviously, you don’t need to dress like Spider-Man. But you are housewives, business leaders, medical professionals, teachers, bankers, grandparents, soccer parents, students and neighbors. You are a person other people trust and will listen to, and you speak their language. And I don’t mean English. You understand and can communicate in a way that a fellow mom, or banker or student or neighbor would understand. God has given you the opportunity to be a missionary. Look around. Where has God placed you? How can you communicate the Gospel to those people that God has placed you in the midst of, in a way that won’t scare them or confuse them, but rather will lead them right into the arms of Jesus?
If you have any stories about how God has used you to make the Gospel understandable to someone else, will you share them under comments?
We had a situation with one of our tenants that presented a difficult, yet powerful opportunity to teach this couple what grace is really about.
For some background, it is a 21 and 22 year old mom and dad of three young children, not yet married, the dad has no GED and reads at a primary level, the mom has her GED, but can't get more than a $8/hr. job, which she has to drive 45 minutes to get to. He has a history of assaults and job-hopping, and has been a stay-at-home dad for the last year while she works.
He is an INCREDIBLE daddy to his kids. While neither of them had great home lives growing up, his was especially crappy with alcoholic meth-addicted parents and the whole nine. I know his parents and his siblings, and seeing him with his kids is like a miracle in and of itself. They have been actively trying to change their lives for the better over the last year, ever since they came to us last April.
Money was getting really tight right after his girlfriend got laid off for the off-season. The dad wanted to get back into MMA fighting, something he used to make money at now and then that would be a much better outlet for stress, etc. because he can concentrate on training. A good, worthwhile goal (for him), but he had no money for the entry fees and equipment he would need. Long story short, he decided that he had enough of our trust that we would never suspect and started growing a handful of marijuana plants in their 2nd bathroom.
It took a good month for me to know for sure something was up, and when his neighboring tenant warned him to get rid of them, he jumped the gun and tried to preemptively get the other guy kicked out. Needless to say, it didn't work and by the time my husband and I had taken time to pray about how to handle the situation, the plants were gone anyway and there was nothing to turn in to authorities. Thank you, Lord!
We went to the couple and confronted them, he broke down, we talked about a lot of concrete realities, and we ultimately forgave him. We wrestled for three agonizing days with whether or not to just call the police or give him time to get rid of it, and despite the timing resolving the police issue for us, we had already decided that the threat of the mother also getting arrested and the kids being thrown in to foster care, or worse, given to his parents in the meantime, was more of a threat to their future than the legal consequences would be.
It was a foolish decision made out of desperation and as long as he fixed it, we could take one step at a time from there. In my husband's words to him, "We're here to help you, not condemn you."
In the days following, I talked with him about rebuilding trust, the reality of how that decision could've destroyed everything he's worked so hard to change, and spent a lot of time counseling both of them. It came to a point where he looked at me and asked, "Why did you give me this chance?" and I could say without hesitation, "Because that's what the whole Jesus thing is about. Forgiveness when you don't deserve it. You and I both know you don't deserve it, but I would not be living what I say I believe if I did any less for you than what was done for me. A lot of people go to church, but living your life by what the bible actually teaches is much, much more than that."
In the few months since then, they have had more challenges that resulted from both life circumstance and some foolish decisions, but they are continuing to work toward a goal for their family, including getting counseling, working at improving his reading skills and fighting to believe it is possible, despite his parents continually reminding him that he is a "P.O.S" and not worth the effort.
Just Thursday night, he told my husband and I, in tears, that he sees my husband and I like real parents, and that he has never had anyone in his life that he was more afraid to disappoint, and that he will keep working to prove to us and himself that he can be better. We are still walking him through the "how," but we are both exalted and humbled to know that God is working a miracle through our little resort-turned-mission house.
When I am with the Church, I speak God-speak as well as anyone. I can theologize and debate the merits of different translations and lament the lack of discipleship in the ranks, but when I am with the untouchables in my community, actions open the door for those words to mean something, and that is how I know why God put us here: "for such a time as this."