The summer before sixth grade I started hanging out with a kid who was going into eighth grade. He was an amazing skateboarder and I looked up to him in many ways. We skated together most of the summer days and he was deeply invested in teaching me how to skate like he did. I was pretty touched and felt wanted. To me, we were best friends and I was cool because of it.
The catch comes with school hours. The first time I saw him at school I sprinted through a thick crowd of people, pushing and elbowing my way towards my idol. When I got to he and his friends and excitedly asked him what was up, he looked at me, turned to his friends and shrugged his shoulders saying, "I don't know who this kid is." They all smirked and walked away, leaving me crushed and alone in a violent sea of pre-pubescent drama. I was ready to quit everything.
This week I had the privilege of serving communion to and praying with a black-skinned, blue-eyed, mute, crippled, homeless man named Johnny. As our eyes met my heart broke because I was looking into the eyes of Jesus Christ. He was hungry, abandoned, and without the means to meet these needs. I was moved for obvious reasons but the one I want to discuss is related to the conviction I was graciously handed.
In that moment I realized that I had been singing songs to the same Jesus and praising him daily. I had been telling him that my will is less important to me than his. I had been telling him that what he needs me to do is what I want to do. But I had not been staring him face to face and meeting the needs I found there. I had not been taking seriously the invitation he gave at the end of Matthew 25. You see, Matthew 25 is not a list of requisites for salvation. It is a cheat sheet for those who are desperate to see and love Jesus.
He says, "So you want to know me? You want to serve me? This is where I'll be: Where there is hunger, where there is thirst, where there are those who don't fit in, where there is nakedness, where there is sickness, and where there is imprisonment or slavery. Meet me there!"
How beautiful would it be if I wanted to know Christ and the power of his love bad enough that I looked where he said to find it! Let us seek him in each other. Let's find him in our brokenness.
When we sing to and praise God in the building and then when we leave, look him in the eyes and tell our friends we don't know him, it must be confusing for him. We could talk about hypocrisy all day long, but there's no intimacy there. Why don't we just strive to achieve a consistency with our lives.
Let's say to him in song, "You are holy!" and then say to him in passing, "You are holy!"
Let's say to him in prayer, "Your will be done with my life." and then say to him in passing, "What do you need?"
I think we'll get to know him. I am.
