Tonight was my little brother's Senior game night with the rest of his graduating class. It's so weird to see him doing all the same things I was doing a year ago. It's crazy to think an entire year has passed by since I was experiencing the same things a year ago. A lot of things change. A lot of things stay the same.
Today, Dano had graduation band practice, and I remember telling my mom in the car that that was my favorite part of the weeks leading up to graduation. Spending time with people that I'd grown up with but hadn't ever REALLY gotten to know. Getting to be silly and laugh and thinking that we'd always be that close. But things change, people change, life goes on. I'm not bitter -tonight brought back a lot of really fond memories! I miss my friends. I miss that golden time where everything seemed completely in place, completely unchangeable, like we'd always be friends and always have that same opportunity to converse and mess around and talk about God and the future.
But now, I see that some of my friends are in Germany spreading the Gospel. My two very best friends and another new friend all moved to Alabama. Friends that I had all throughout middle and high school now have other things that occupy their time. It makes me reflect on what I've done the past year. Have I made an impact on people? Have I made an impression on the people that I spend time with?
My topic for this post is the church, and if you know me, you know that I'm a huge proponent of the saying that the church is NOT a building - it's about where God's people are gathered. And tonight, at the Bermudez's house, while playing games and eating hamburgers and just socializing with new people going through the same thing I went through a year ago...I felt a tremendous amount of relief. At school and with new people I meet at school, I feel the need to show everyone that I'm different. That I am who I am because God loves me, and I want to share that love with them, and show them that God is so much more than just a cosmic being who created us. He's so much more than a myth. So much more than a genie who can grant all of our wishes. He's holy (1 Pet. 1:16), and He's perfect(Ps. 18:30), and He wants a relationship with you (John 3:16, Rom. 5:8). He wants to take care of you, and He wants your burdens (Matt. 11:28), and He wants to be your safe place. He wants to be your refuge, and all you have to do is ask (Ps. 18:2, 91:2).
So tonight was a relief for me because all of the people who surrounded me shared that mindset. The adults were encouraging to the next generation who would be graduating, and everyone was so at peace with everyone else. And I had to imagine that that's what Heaven will be like. No fighting, no garbage, no stress. Just relief, and peace and calm and forever with the Creator of the Universe - because that's what the church is supposed to be! We make it so difficult for people to come to Jesus without even realizing it. When really, all we need is to love them the way Jesus loves them. I'm not saying that we need to sanitize the Gospel. I'm just saying that this world is hurting. People in this world feel so unloved and so unimportant, and what are YOU doing for them? What am I doing for them?
If we claim to be God's people, we should act like it. It applies to me too! We're called to love one another, and make allowances for other peoples' faults (Col. 3:13). When people are around us, they shouldn't just see that we're "good Christians." They should see a difference in how we treat each other, and how we handle situations. They should see us as a unified group, willing to take care of them, and not to judge them. After all, isn't that what Jesus did for you? (1 John 4:8-11)
1 comment:
Yes mam! (:
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