Really Radical

“The greatest miracle of all time is that Jesus comes to people.” 

                                                                                Gwen Ford Faulkenberry, Jesus Be Near Me.


Wow!  That’s the first thought that came to me when I read this.  Then, I read it again, and again.  When I am so often focused on people coming to Jesus, this truth just ‘whammed’ me.  There are so many that are on my heart on a regular basis that need to come to Jesus.  I pray for them, I share with them when God gives opportunity.  Sometimes, because I just want so badly for them to know the Jesus that I know, the life I have with Him, how precious and awesome and wonderful it is, I lose sight of how hard it might be for some to see this as the simple and beautiful choice that it is.  I’m pretty sure I can come across too strongly at times. 

At the children’s home where we work, I am often sharing Scripture and bibilical truth when situations come up.  In the kitchen one evening, while preparing dinner and talking with one of our guys (the kitchen is my office! The guys know they can come in and talk), he blurted out, “Miss Ang, why does everything have to be a Sunday School lesson with you!”  This quickly became a standing joke with us, and many future conversations were prefaced with “….attention, Sunday School lesson!!”  This young man had recently given his heart to Christ and was struggling a bit now with a lifestyle choice that was bothering him. It was a serious matter for him, and I understood that.  But I wondered too if I was being sensitive enough to where he was.  Was I really listening to his questions?  Or too quickly spouting answers? 

The mom in me too often just wants to fix things, and I am so confident that Jesus can do that.  I know if the Spirit of God is given a chance to take the Word of God and go to work in a heart and life, it’s radical.  But I just don’t see that happen nearly enough it seems.  Change often takes time, lots of time.  Like with many of our guys, trust has to be built.  They need to know that we care about them, that we’re going to love them even if they choose not to choose the Christ we know and serve.  And that’s hard. 

There was something about this impacting statement that helped me.  It became clearer that in the very moment when God may be working, I need to let go and trust that Jesus comes to people.  He draws them to Him, and maybe He will even use me in the process, but He comes to people. I don’t have to fix anything.  He still comes to people.  In His time, in His way, He still changes lives.  And that’s radical.