Walking With Christ

Dear Pastor,

                I stopped by your church the other day.  I wanted to meet that guy you call Jesus.  I’ve heard a lot about him and the amazing things he has done.  I’ve heard that he could help me.  You see, there’s something wrong with me.  I don’t know exactly what it is.  There’s something missing in me.  The emptiness eats at me.  I can’t put a name to what’s wrong with me, but I can almost see it’s face when I’m looking in the mirror.  I was told that I could meet him there and he would know how to help me.  I was told that his followers would be happy to help me meet him.

                I met a lot of people.  Well, I didn’t see Jesus, but I’ll tell you what I did see.  I saw a few people who bought the same poisons from the same person sitting just a few seats behind them.  I saw them with their hands in the air pretending that they didn’t see me.  I saw the people who yelled at me for taking too long to cross the road in front of them.  They screamed obscenities at me and seemed to forget the WWJD bumper sticker on the back of their car.  I saw the deacon sitting there with his family trying to pretend I didn’t see him picking up girls in the bad part of town.  I saw one of the guys in the band who spends more money a week at the liquor store than I have ever seen.

                I listened to your message.  The only thing I can remember from the message is that I’m going to hell if I don’t give my heart to Jesus and my wallet to you.  I was left with more questions than answers.  It seems that the most important people in the room were the most broken.  They have the same problems I do even though they want to pretend that they don’t.  I don’t have anything in my wallet so you can have what I’ve got.  I don’t know enough about hell to be afraid of it, so I can’t understand why you don’t want me to go there.  Why would this Jesus want something as broken as my heart, and what do I get in return?

                No, I didn’t meet Jesus while I was there.  I can understand that he was too busy to stop by.  From the looks of it, it’s been a long time since he had the time to stop by to visit anyone there.  It seems that there is a line of people just waiting for him to come back and fix what’s wrong with them, too.  They seem happy waiting on him to fix things while they just continue to do the same things that I do to dull the pain.  I’m so lost.  I’m alone and I don’t know where to go.  I’m in pain but can’t tell you why.  I was told that Jesus had the answers, but it seems that he isn’t here.  The others seem happy to wait for him to stop in to fix things, but I don’t think I have that long.  Can you tell me where he went?

Signed:  Broken and hurting

Dear Broken and hurting,

                I’m sorry I failed you.  I can feel the pain and sorrow you feel in every word that you wrote.  The burden you carry is similar to the one I had before I met Jesus myself.  I know the emptiness and heartache.  I know the scars that build up from being left alone for too long in this world.  I’m sorry that the only parts of the message that you took with you didn’t include the parts that I wanted you to hear the most.  I’m sorry that I didn’t reach you and encourage you the way that I was encouraged.  I’m sorry that my failings caused you more pain.  It’s a great reminder that we are all human and prone to making such mistakes.  It’s perfect because it gives a wonderful opportunity to live in the mercy and grace that we get from knowing Jesus.

                Meeting Jesus isn’t about walking into any particular building and being greeted by perfect people.  It’s about encountering His love and grace in a way that transforms us from the inside out.  Jesus lived as a man and because of that was well acquainted with pain and suffering.  He reaches out to everyone who is broken and hurting with open arms.  He doesn’t see us for our failings, shortcomings, or even as we are.  No, He sees our truth.  He sees our potential.  He sees the beauty His, and our, Father built into our very souls.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”(ESV)

                Jesus wants to meet you.  He wants a relationship with you.  He wants your heart, not because He demands it, but because He knows your pain and wants to heal your heart.  He offers hope to the hopeless, peace even in turmoil, and an unconditional love that will fill the emptiness that you describe.  In exchange, He asks for trust.  He asks that you trust that He can and will make things better, even when the path isn’t clear or it seems that you are alone.  He wants you to know that He is always with you, even now.  In Luke 19:10 we read, “For the Son of Man (Jesus) came to seek and to save the lost.”(ESV)  In Romans 3:23-24 we read, “(23)for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (24)and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”(ESV).

                As for hell, I don’t want you to go to hell.  Jesus made a way for you to avoid going there.  All you have to do is accept His desire to have a relationship with you.  Open your heart to Him and let Him change you from the inside out.  This isn’t about avoiding hell.  It’s about changing directions to be with the one who loves you enough to die for you.  It’s about turning towards the love that risks everything for the chance to save you.

                As for your wallet, I don’t need your wallet.  God doesn’t need your money.  The contents of your wallet won’t change where you are going.  It isn’t about the money.  It’s about sharing your blessings with those who have less.  It’s about recognizing the blessings that our Father has given us and trusting Him to do more with the little we give back than we could possibly to with ten times what we have.  Giving a small portion of what we have been blessed with back to God is just one way we can show thanks and praise for all that we have.

                If these last two things leave you with questions, that’s fine.  There are far more important things for you to understand first.  The first is that Jesus loves you unconditionally.  He says that anyone who loves Him will also love you as He does.  1 Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”(ESV)  It would be a personal honor to introduce you to the Jesus that I know.  I would love to introduce you to the Jesus that saved me from the pain I was in and changed me so radically that even my own family didn’t recognize me.  I would love to show you the hope that He gave me as we walk together to get to know Him better.  You are not alone.  The church is full of broken and hurting people in much the same way as a hospital is full of sick and dying people.  The doctor does not seek to heal the healthy and Jesus does not seek to save the perfect.  No, He came for the sick, empty, broken, and hurting.  He came for me.  He came for you.  Luke 5:31-32 says, “And Jesus answered them, “(31)Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  (32)I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”(ESV)  None of us are perfect.  Anyone who says they are is just fooling themselves to avoid the truth that is so obvious to others.  Our enemy would love for you to believe that everyone in the church is perfect so that when you see the truth like you have that you would only see liars and hypocrites going forward instead of seeing the broken who are seeking a meeting with the healer.

Thank you for reaching out, and please give me another chance to introduce you to the Jesus I know and love.  The fact that you reached out shows that He began a good work in you.  We read in Philippians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”(ESV)

Give Jesus another chance,

Your Pastor

People don’t stop going to the doctor when one doctor gives them bad advice.  People don’t stop going to the dentist just because they have a bad experience with one.  People don’t stop driving cars because of one bad mechanic.  People don’t stop eating out at restaurants just because of one bad meal.  Yet, they will completely give up on God and faith because of one bad experience with the church or the broken people in it.  It’s almost like my youngest who licked a piece of broccoli once and decided to never eat anything green again.  It makes no sense, but it’s so hard to show them the logical problem.

John 5:39-40  (39)You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, (40)yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.(ESV)

Jesus knows that we are all broken and missing something.  It’s the very nature of the fallen world that we live in.  The moment we are born, the world tries to start taking something from us.  Eventually, the world wins and our innocence is lost.  We go to a different doctor when we hear a diagnosis we don’t like.  We go to a different dentist if the one has a poor bedside manner.  We go to a different mechanic if the one can’t fix the problem.  Yet, we expect the church to be perfect on the first try even though we know that it is made up of broken people.

I think the problem is that we understand the power of God to fix the broken.  We seem to expect that if the people in the church really had met with Jesus and He did what the bible promised then those people would suddenly be perfect and have it all together.  The truth is that anyone who has read past the first page of the bible will see that people have never been perfect since the fall.  Thankfully, this isn’t a surprise to God.  He made a way to reach us no matter how far away we get.  His light can reach us no matter how dark the world gets or how lost we feel.

Hebrews 10:24-25  (24)And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, (25)not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.(ESV)

Galatians 6:2  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.(ESV)

Romans 15:1-2  (1)We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  (2)Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.(ESV)

If you felt a bit of a sting with this one, too, I’ll meet you at the altar.