A few years ago, my friends Kyle, Justin, and I were hanging out in Muscatine at our friend Caroline's house. We were joking around and just having a good time for a while but on this particular day our fate was to be put in a terribly awkward situation. Caroline had a cat that was missing its nose......so naturally we took to calling it Noseby. Caroline wasn't really a fan of the name (to this day I can't remember the cat's real name) but she wasn't able to get us to stop calling it Noseby. This particular day we were playing Would You Rather and one of my friends asked Caroline: "would you rather call your cat Noseby for the rest of your life or...." and that's as far as he got because Caroline ran out of the room crying as soon as he brought it up. As Kyle, Justin, and I sat in stunned silence, not sure what to do or what just happened, we were informed that Noseby had in fact been put down earlier that day. Talk about bad timing....
Even though that story has moved from Most Awkward Moment Ever to Funny Moment to Relive, it still illustrates an interesting facet of humanity, namely, our tendency to be totally oblivious to the circumstances surrounding people's lives. For Christians, this tendency is particularly troubling. We have a mandate to share the news of Christ with all people. But more often than not, we go from delivering the Good News to delivering judgement on people who aren't living in the same way that we are. Christians are notorious for this and many non-believers cite judgmental Christians as one of their primary arguments against the faith.
I have to admit that I struggle with this myself. Oftentimes I find it so much easier to just sit back and judge a person rather than get to know them. In the case above, I could see that Caroline was down about something but rather than ask what was wrong and try to understand her, I assumed that everything would be OK if I just avoided whatever it was. The end result was an awkward tear filled moment. But honestly that story isn't the best illustration. There are way more painful and lasting issues in most people's lives than just a dead cat. I have had people come to me and admit that they have been raped, cut themselves, attempted suicide, been thrown through a wall by their father, and so on. And on the outside you might never guess. The real tragedy is not that they don't open up about what they've been through but that we don't take the time to get to know them well enough to find out.
The issues that people go through often shape them into the people that we love to judge because no one ever taught them to cope. When we try to win people over to Jesus we fall into the trap of simply condemning certain ways of living without any sort of follow up or personal interaction. We argue our points and in the end that is all that we make: a point. But Jesus didn't make points, He made a difference. Pastor Mark Driscoll has this to say: "if we want to make a point we don't need to pursue, know, or love someone. We simply sit back, make a caricature of someone, and shoot them. If we want to make a difference, we have to pursue them, get to know them, understand them, love them, and serve them."
It is really easy to sit in the seat of the mocker and make fun of people that are different than us or people that we disagree with. What is really hard is to come along side someone and say "hey, let's share life with each other." You have to open yourself up in the process of getting to know another person and that is a scary thing. But it is also the most authentic thing you can do. No one will ever give any credence to what you say about Jesus if you don't model his authenticity.
C.S Lewis has an awesome quote that illustrates this perfectly:
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses to remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person that you meet now may one day be a creature which, if you were to say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you meet now, if at all, in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities that we must conduct all our dealings with each other; all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people- you have never talked to a mere mortal...That does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be the kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption."
This is the love that Jesus modeled for us. As his followers, we are compelled to love in the same way. Jesus went after the social undesirables. He served, he loved, he pursued, he made a difference.
Never take anything for granted about someone else even if you see them every day and you think you know them. God is the only one fully qualified to examine hearts and minds with impunity. The hurts of this world as a result of sin are immense and many. People are complicated because God in his divine providence made them that way to reflect his glory in us, his image bearers. When we judge others, we elevate ourselves from created to creator and presume to be like God in our ability to know the hearts of others. This is the sin of both pride and idolatry and we must repent, live in humility like Jesus and learn how to make a difference rather than a point. Then we can help others come to Jesus instead of dragging them through the swamp of our self-righteousness.
A special thanks to Noseby for helping me out from Cat Heaven....hopefully you got your nose back buddy.
Also, This song goes perfectly with the post topic. Give it a listen
Also, This song goes perfectly with the post topic. Give it a listen
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