Remember their humanity

A few weeks ago, when I was visiting in Seoul with friends, we were approached on the subway by an apparent homeless man asking for money.  The always awkward encounter was exacerbated by the fact that I didn't speak the beggar's language, and thus could really not communicate with him at all.

But after the man left was when things got really unpleasant.  One of my friends started talking about how much he hates it when people ask him for money, and how he never gives them anything - they're just going to go spend it on some nefarious substance, anyway.  And we've all heard the stories about people who make their living - and a very good living, at that - by pretending to be destitute and taking advantage of the mercy of strangers.  So, on one hand, I couldn't really argue with my friend that the man was more than likely to spend any money we gave him on something other than food.

But every time I am approached by a person in need, I am reminded of an encounter I had in a Wal-mart parking lot a few years ago, when I was still in college.  I had just bought a few things for my dorm room, and was walking back to my car, when all of a sudden I was approached by a big burly man, who asked me for some money to buy toilet paper.  It was dark, the man was intimidating, and I was tired and didn't want to deal with him, but something told me to help this man, anyway.  I prefer not to give money to strangers if I can avoid it, however, so I offered to go back into the store with him and buy some toilet paper for him.

While we were walking back into the store, he apparently decided that I should know all about his life - so he told me.  He told me how his mother was sick and his father was dead, and so he was trying to take care of her.  He told me about his long-term girlfriend that he was trying to save up enough money to marry.  He told me about his recent release from prison, and how difficult it's been since then to try to get back on his feet, and about the welfare checks that for some reason the government had stopped sending.  It's possible that he was just a really good liar, but I think it's far more likely that he really needed help, and either way, ever since then it's been impossible for me to look upon someone in need with disdain.

It's so easy for us to shrug off the entreaties of others, assuming things like "they don't really need my help....someone else will help them....they'll just spend the money on drugs or alcohol, anyway."  Whatever the excuse may be, we have a tendency to group people together and make assumptions about them as a whole...it makes them seem less human, somehow, which makes it much easier to ignore their troubles.

But the only person who really has the ability to make a judgement on someone's past is Jesus...and He loves us anyway.  If He, knowing our pasts, knowing our flaws, loves us and cares for us anyway, then who are we to react any differently when people around us need our help?

John 4:1-26

¹ Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
 ⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
 ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
 ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])
 ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
 ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
 ¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
 ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
 ¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
 ¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.
   Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
 ¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
   ²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
 ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
 ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Acknowledging Him with our lifestyles

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians...who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."                                                           ~Brennen Manning

This is one of my favorite quotes ever.  It is simultaneously one of my least favorite quotes ever.  I first heard it in a song, "What if I stumble" by dcTalk, and have since then looked up the original author of the quote.  But every time I hear it it gives me pause to stop and think.  

Jesus calls Himself the Light of the World; the Way, the Truth, and the Life; our Savior; He is all of these wonderful things that should bring people to their knees in awe at the mention of His name.  But many people, rather than feeling awe and adoration of Him, instead feel revulsion and disgust at the mention of His name.


Why is that?  How can it be that we have so soiled the name of Christ, that people won't even step foot into a church, lest they be associated with Him?  Being a Christian has become, to many, a list of rules and regulations, a checklist of things that must be done and believed, of which a failure to follow will result in swift human judgment and imminent divine condemnation.  


But Jesus is supposed to bring hope, not hostility; He offers peace, not pain; He wants to give us comfort, not condescension.  And as "little Christs," we are supposed to do the same.  How can we have screwed it up so badly?  Jesus said that it is better to be either hot OR cold for Him, than to be lukewarm.  Not matching your actions with your words is the worse kind of disbelief.  It's the kind that not only harms yourself, but also disillusions those around you.


So I challenge you today, to live what you say you believe.  Be the kind of Christian that makes people want to know Jesus.  Let your actions draw them to Him, like Zacchaeus was drawn to Jesus.  That's the kind of life that we were called to.  Don't be another cause of atheism.

Luke 19:1-10

 ¹ Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
 ⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
 ⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
 ⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
 ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Stand in awe

I think that so often, it's really easy to read stories in the Bible and put them characters in them on a pedestal.  "They were so much holier than I am," we think.  "Trusting in and following God must have been so easy, so simple for them."  That's why I like the book of Ecclesiastes.  It reminds me that the people in the Bible were just as human as I am.

The majority of the book of Ecclesiastes is a pretty depressing book.  The headlines in my Bible read something like this: Everything is meaningless....Wisdom is meaningless...pleasures are meaningless...wisdom and folly are meaningless...toil is meaningless...advancement is meaningless...riches are meaningless...oppression, toil, friendlessness....I think you see the common theme here.

The cool thing to me, though, is that this book is still in the Bible.  God doesn't want us to mask our feelings.  He wants to know how we really feel; He'd rather us be honest than pretend to think something that we really don't.  God doesn't want an army of little robots who are programmed to worship Him; He wants sincerity, both the good AND the bad emotions.

So then all of a sudden, after all of this depression, there is a break in the gloom.  It's as if the author has just woken up and realized Who his God really is.  He has stopped his morose philosophical ramblings just long enough to understand how big, how amazing, how purely awe-inspiring his God really is.

Does the thought of God provoke you to think more about the words that you utter, to consider more carefully the places that your feet take you, to focus your dreams on His goals rather than yours?  Does the thought of God make you stand in awe of Him?  I hope it does.  He is surely an awe-inspiring God.

Ecclesiastes 5:4-7

 ⁴ When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. ⁵ It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. ⁶ Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? ⁷ Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.

An eternal perspective

I gave my Bible away today.  Not the one that I read every day, with the wrinkled pages and highlighted passages and underlined words and notes scribbled in the margin.  This is one that I've never really even opened, but it was special to me, anyway.  It was a English-Korean parallel Bible, and was my going-away present from my mother and father, given to me the day before I left the country.

At first I really struggled with giving it away.  I'm hugely sentimental, and this particular Bible had a lot of sentimental value to me.  But the person I gave it to has been asking a lot of questions recently about God, and when they mentioned the other day that they wished they had a paper copy of the Bible to read, I couldn't in good conscience shrug off their comment, knowing full well that I had a brand-new, unused Bible sitting on my shelf at home, just waiting for someone to read it.

So I gave it to them...and then went and read Matthew 6.  As I see more cultures and meet more people and, most importantly, get to know God better and better, I'm starting to realize something.  At the end of my life, God isn't going to care how many sentimental trinkets, exotic curiosities, or unique souvenirs I've accumulated over the span of my life.  None of those things are going to come with me after I die, anyway.  What He will care about is the people I've helped, the lives I've touched, and the times that I've shown His love to someone else. 

It's time to get our perspective lined up with God's.  Do we care more about some silly little trinket, or being on time to a meeting, or saving face in front of our friends.....or do we care enough about the people around them to show them God's love?  Ask God today to give you an eternal perspective.  Once your perspective changes, it's amazing how your actions towards others will follow.

Matthew 6:19-21

  ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

Know Love first

As a child, I was fascinated by the story of Mara and Sheftu. It is a romance, true, but not one of those trashy romances that my friends and I are so fond of making fun of. The story of Mara and Sheftu is characterized by strong characters and an even stronger love that unites them. Mara was my introduction to self assured, intelligent female literary characters, at least so far as I can remember. And Sheftu...well, I have wanted to find my Sheftu even when I still thought that boys had cuties and drooled.

I am no longer a child. But I still dream of being a Mara; a confident, successful woman who doesn't need a man to be happy, and yet still ends up finding the man who complements her perfectly in every way. But I, like Mara, have much to learn about love.

I have learned that love has nothing to do with how I feel about someone, or what they do for me, or what they DON'T do for me. I have learned that love is a choice, a decision, an action, whether the gushy feelings are there or not. I have learned that I cannot love without knowing Love. And I have learned...that I am not ready to love another the way that I want to be loved.

Oh, amidst the plethora of peers and friends of mine who are engaged, married, or with child, how difficult that is to say! I put up a good front, but I truly desire that more than almost anything. And yet...God's timing is not ours. God's timing is not MINE. My competitive, impatient self finds that very difficult to accept. And yet, I thank God every day for giving me the gift of memory. For when I look back at my life, I can see how His timing is always so much better than mine.

Song of Solomon 3:1-5

 ¹ All night long on my bed
   I looked for the one my heart loves;
   I looked for him but did not find him.
² I will get up now and go about the city,
   through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
   So I looked for him but did not find him.
³ The watchmen found me
   as they made their rounds in the city.
   “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
⁴ Scarcely had I passed them
   when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
   till I had brought him to my mother’s house,
   to the room of the one who conceived me.
⁵ Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
   by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
   until it so desires.

Remember their stories

 Sometimes it's easy to think of the girls that I am teaching as small children, because their ability to communicate with me rivals that of a small child.  But they are not children; they have hopes and dreams and joys and sorrows, just like the rest of us.  They have a story to tell, too.
The first day of class, I had all my students make name cards for themselves, and then write a few facts about themselves  on the cards.  Sometimes when class gets frustrating, I go back and read those name cards.  They remind me of why I do what I do.  "I want to be a doctor."  "Yesterday was my birthday."  "I want to make people laugh."  "I wish that I was prettier."  These girls are real people with real problems, and a real need for love.

I wonder if Jesus ever had to be reminded about that.  Was He ever frustrated when people constantly came to Him for help?  Did He ever feel like He was just being used?  Underappreciated?  Overworked?  I would imagine that He did not struggle with that....but for a very simple, yet profound reason.  Jesus remembered their stories.  He remembered that these were not just huddled masses, not just a homogenous group with no individuality.  They were people.  They had hopes and ambitions, and plans for their futures.  They had aspirations for their lives.

Jesus had compassion on them because Jesus remembered that they were people, made in the image of God Himself, precious in God's sight, and valuable in their own right.  That's a lesson that we would all do well to remember.

Mark 5:21-32

 ²¹ When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ²² Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ²³ He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.
   A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
 ³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
 ³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
 ³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

In spite of ourselves

I've often heard it said that God loves us for who we are.  But I don't think that's quite right.  Say what, you ask?  Isn't God supposed to love us no matter what?  Well, yes and no.  Saying that He loves us exactly as we are implies, to me, that there is no need for who we are to be changed.  But there is a need for us to be changed.  In fact, it's a life or death issue.  

God doesn't love us for who we are.  He loves us in spite of who we are.  He loves us so much that He refused to let us stay where we are.  Romans 5 says that God showed His love for us by sending  His Son to die for us while we were still sinners.  How many people do you know that would die for a bad person?  Most people would not die for anyone, although a few might be convinced to give their life for an incredible person like Mother Teresa or Ghandi.  But a bad person?  Who would willingly give their life to save someone who's already made a mess of their life?

That's how much God loves us.  Not for who we are.  In spite of who we are.  He loves us so much that he refuses to allow us to stay where we are.  He wants to take us from glory, to glory, to glory in Him.  I love the philosophical picture that Romans 5:10 paints for us.  "If God was able to do so much for us with the death of His Son," it says, "just imagine how much He can do with the life of His Son!"  Can you imagine?  I can't.  He's so much bigger than I, His love is so much more profound than mine, that I find it quite impossible to fathom.

If you're struggling with who you are, with how to approach God, don't worry about cleaning up yourself before you approach Him.  He offered us grace so that we could come to Him as we are.  So let Him love you.  Not for who you are.  But in spite of who you are. 

Romans 5:8-11

⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
 ⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.