I hate it when people say, "Be careful what you pray for because you just might get it." I hate it when people say that because it rings true. I'm not talking about praying for a Maserati. I tried that. Didn't get it.
Dear God, you know that white one we saw the other day with the hand-stitched red leather...
But when it comes to prayers that involve serving others with the Gospel, I have noticed that God seems to have a vested interest in such things. God seems keenly concerned in using us to share his truth with the disenfranchised. Or perhaps "interested" and "concerned" are words too soft, too minor for what God feels. Maybe "active" is a better word. Yeah, I think it is. Active. God is actively involved in sharing a Gospel life with those who do not know him. And whenever we ask God to help us find such people, brace yourself, because he is a fast God. Quick on the draw when it comes to boundless grace and mercy.
So lately I have been encouraging people to pray that God will put people in our path who have left the church. I believe people are in our neighborhood who no longer practice any kind of Christianity other than American piety that says things like, "I'm a Christian." I'm talking about people who say "Jesus" on Easter and Christmas and sometimes Thanksgiving, and people who say "Jesus" when they hit their thumb with a hammer. But when it comes to being engaged in the kind of relationships one builds over years of worship and service together, many are no longer interested. Even though I hear the death knell from those who say the organized church is dead in the water--(fun metaphor, by the way)--I still believe in the value of building deep friendships around the blood of Christ. If I lost my faith in the church, it's in the megachurch. And you, O faithful bloggerland reader, already know that. The only way burned out Christians are going to return to "the church" is by way of actual person-to-person contact where we put our feet under one another's tables. You know, kind of like what Jesus did.
So that's what I have been telling people to pray for at my church. Pray that God will put people in our path who live in this area who will find a home in a simple, authentic gathering of God's people. Moreover, pray that God will give us the wisdom and discernment to recognize them when he puts them in our path.
Be careful what you pray for.
At lunch today, I had to run two errands. Go fill up the car, and go to the UPS store. Just around the corner from my office. No big deal. Nothing special.
I pulled into the gas station. The car in front of me was in obvious trouble. It wasn't running, but the lights were on, and the tough looking lady outside the car had borrowed someone's phone to make what seemed to be a pretty distressed phone call. My personality is such that I did not want to talk to her. If you are a stranger beside me on an airplane, don't expect a loquacious traveling companion. But the lady at the gas station looked bad. So I asked, "Are you having car trouble?"
(I heard an echo in my head at that moment of Bill Engvall saying, "Nope, just felt like parking it at a gas station with the lights on. Here's your sign.")
She didn't respond to the car question. Instead, she said that her daughter had just died and that she did not have a place to live.
Now, being a preacher, I have heard every story in the book from people who knock on the door of the church building asking for handouts. She didn't seem that way. But she did ask me for cash. I gave her the seven dollars in my glove compartment. I usually don't carry any cash at all. Then I went and pumped my own gas. Something nagged inside me.
I went over and gave her my card and said, "Come around the corner if you need to talk."
She started crying more and asked me why God killed her daughter. I told her that I didn't think God works that way. I told her that when my oldest son died 13 years ago that I had to rethink my assumptions about God and life and just about everything else. I then told her I would be back to the office in 15 minutes, and to come by.
She was already inside when I got back. But her husband was standing outside. He looked very hungover. I told him to come inside and sit down.
We put her in touch with two agencies nearby who can provide actual sustainable help. Not a handout, but real help. Food, clothing, job interviewing skills, the works. I hope she takes advantage of the help.
If we talk about a more "missional" approach to Christianity, it has to involve having eyes to see things like going to the gas station as an opportunity to live out the Gospel. It may not happen often. Or maybe it will. Maybe a great deal of this has to do with being open to the movement of God's Spirit, while simultaneously open to those all around us.
Am I patting myself on the back for what happened today? Well, yes... kind of. Not to get accolades from others, but rather as a testimony to the fact that God has somehow managed to break through the hardness of my intellectually rigorous faith to peel away the cynicism I was taught in college and seminary. I am filled with joy that God is actually working in the people I live among to look at the world with new eyes, and to see our own backyard as a mission field. We as a church are praying. Maybe we should pray that God will put in our path ten new families who are burned out on church but who still hunger and thirst for authentic faith. Maybe we should pray that God will use us to be a home for the spiritually homeless.
Maybe we just need to pray more about the things that God cares about.
Although I wouldn't mind if God likes white Maseratis with red leather.
