it's about them, not me

The world is watching to see whether you are being like Jesus. Okay...maybe that's a little too distant; let's get closer: Your coworkers/colleagues are watching to see whether you are being like Jesus; your friends are watching to see if you are being like Jesus; your family members are watching to see if you are being like Jesus. And that's not the most scary part. The scariest part is this: they will base their view of Jesus, the church, and the relevance of it all on whether you are being like him!

As our world, and especially those in the USA, grows more and more skeptical of Christians, the pressure is truly on us to live what we believe. We'd probably all agree that Jesus loves people. Are we loving people? We'd probably agree that Jesus will go to extreme efforts to help people. Are we going to extreme efforts to help people? Are we being the 'neighbor' Jesus was speaking of?

As we thought about in our worship experience yesterday, the easy way out is to ask the wrong questions: How do I feel about this situation/person? What problems does this present for me? What will this cost me? What will other people think? Those questions are the wrong ones because they all find their basis in one common element: me. Now consider, again, these more God-focused questions: Does God loves this person? Is this situation a potential opportunity? How can I serve? What does God want?

How much of an impact could you have in your place in God's world if you those were the questions you were asking? How much impact could we have in our community if the people of GFMC were all asking those questions? God only knows. But it would be quite a different picture than if we were thinking only of ourselves.

Becoming followers of Jesus who get it: it's about them, not me.