9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:9-10
How quickly we jump to conclusions about the person we see on the streets. Instead of expressing a few words of encouragment we take our cues from talk radio where the host spews out venum of hate until the airwaves become so filled with it that your blood pressure boils, your temper flares and your brow turns red and each morning you wake your body feels like it has been in a war.
You listened to the same regimen of conspiracy theories from shock jocks who are making money off of endorsements you never knew about. They go home counting their cash and you head to the ER bccause of a pouinding sensation from listening to their stash.
You remind yourself that life is so unfair when those around you are getting a free ride while you have to earn everything you keep. Your anger grows increasingly by the hour until, that is, others around you noticed that you aren't a nice person to hang around anymore.
What if we all were giving the ability to know what was in someone's heart the moment you came upon them? What if the person in front of you suddenly had a thought pop up that told you ' I hope I do well in that job interview' or 'I hope I make it to the hospital to see my dad before passes' or 'please God don't let my child die' or how do I tell my wife and family I just lost our only source of income and how do I tell my family that we won't be going to Disney world this summer?
What if every car we pass by or every person we see had this thought line that pop up. The Middle Eastern man's pop-up quote may say, " I wonder how I can get my son to not spend so much time on the computer and focus on school?" The woman on the street with the sad eyes might have just received the news that her fience was killed in Iraqu, or in the car to the right of yours is one that reads "I'm 4 months behind on the mortgage where and how am I going to catch up?"
If we knew what was in their heart would we be so quick to judge them?
After our loss in 2007 I noticed that my grief gave me a greater sensitivity for those around me. Instead of seeing people from my former shock jock vantage post I began to see people with struggles, with pain, and with uncertainties of life.
Going to church was no longer about seeing friends and telling a few jokes and soaking up what the pastor had to say then going home and filing my bible on the shelf for another week.
Now, when I go to church I am able to look past the suits and the pretty dresses and see people with problems. I no longer see perfection, but I see incredible struggles, pain and losses.
I know from my experience that people who come to a church for the first time are looking for genuine people who truly know how to listen AND show empathy to them. If they were interested in short talks with a little spice of humor thrown in they would have gone to a sports bar with some friends. But, when they step through the doors of that church they are dying for someone to get to know them. They're dying for genuineness.
All it takes are a few questions at the right time and a willingness to share your own struggles.
To be transparent means to invite others to be transparent with you. Transparency builds relationships. Relationships build trust and trust leads to hope that all will be well in the midst of pain and suffering.
As we see people as God sees them we no longer find ways to avoid going to church. We look forward to meeting people and supportingand encouraging them in their journeys. Going to church honors God as the sweet aroma of our worship and encouragement wafts up to the heavenlies.
Our Sabbath day becomes like a sweet oasis of gentle rains of God's grace where for one day we get to lay down our labor and lean on him to show us something from the word of God that will inspire us and others God brings into our path.
Whatever you have to face in this life be it a terminal illness, a surgery, a child on life support, God will bring you through that journey. There may be pain and the pain may linger, but eventually God will bring you out the other side stronger and more resilient than before your journey began.
I wished my daugther was still here with my family. I wished I could reverse the earth's rotation just as Superman did when he brought back Lois Lane from the brink of death, but I know that isn't possible. I know that my relationship with Jesus Christ and the relationship my daugther had with Jesus reminded me that she is at this very moment in heaven enjoying all of the benefits that the rest of us will experience when our lives come to a screeching halt. All it takes is a simple prayer to set things right. A simple prayer that will assure that your name is written in the Lamb's book of life.
A simple prayer like this one:
"Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and nothing I can do is enough to earn my salvation. I know that you died on the cross and paid the penalty for my sin's. I ask you to come into my life and become my Savior. I want to step down from the throne and allow you, Jesus, to take the throne of my life. Thank you Lord for the free gift of Salvation just as it says in 1 John 5:11-12:11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. Amen
The next time you're walking down he street try to picture others as God see's them, not the way our shock jocks with their millions of dollars of endorsements see them.
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