I found out yesterday that a good friend of mine that I have known for a a couple of years now has rather similar interests as I do. He and I are very busy, and it seems we hardly ever chat about stuff that we love doing. But last night, we were "texting", and different topics came up that we both enjoyed doing. Netiher of us knew the other enjoyed those same things. Think about that for a minute: I call this guy a ""brother in Christ"; someone I go to "when times are bad", and I don't even know the basic hobbies that he is interested in??
Our congregation has a men's class that meets gets together on Wednesday nights. There isn't much of a format, but it always ends up turning spiritually deep, convicting, and just flat out amazing. I think what is amazing about it, is that it doesn't have a set series, and yet we still get into a rather deep, philosophical, and even open dialogue on Jesus and what it means to be a man in our current society. Last night, was no different. We looked at a pasage out of Acts where Paul comes into Ephesus and meets with a group of Christians, then basically sets up shop for 2 years. By the time he is done, "all of the province of Asia had heard the Way". Paul focused on a select few, who were passionate about Jesus, and used them to spread the gospel. We then spent the next 30 or so minutes brainstorming ideas that we could implement now at our congregation.
Yesterday was a long day for me. By the time I got home from work, we didn't have time to eat dinner before going to church. After church some of the teens asked if we were going to the usual hangout (Steak and Shake). By the time we got in the car, I had forgotten my verbal acknowledgement, and we ended up going somewhere else. After a few minutes, I got a text asking where I was. Man, I felt bad. The teens understood, but it really hit me hard. I had this overwhelming feeling that I am doing so much, but not impacting one thing really well.
I think we sometimes put higher expections on our results than what God actually intended. If we are focused on our results, we are missing the point. As a great man said last night, "the bible doesn't say much about our results; just our efforts." All we can do, is try our best. God wants us to focus on Him in everything we do. For me, that is showing Jesus to everyone, in every aspect of my life. How would Jesus treat 'Chelle in a normal daily routine? How would Jesus interact with the little ones on a daily basis? How would Jesus perform my job on a normal Thursday afternoon?
Back to my friend from last night. I should know more about this guy. He and I spend a lot of time together doing "church stuff". I know him well enough to know what he would do in a particular "church scenario". I know what his class is going to be like. I know that if he is leading a meeting how it will be ran. I know that if someone asks him to do something in a church function capacity, he will excel at it. What I don't know is, what he enjoys to do during his personal time. What hit me last night was, there are a lot of guys that I know like that. If we look at the model that Paul did when he got to Ephesus, I don't think it is much of a stretch to infer that he knew those guys pretty well. He knew what they enjoyed doing. He knew what their gifts were. He knew them all really well. I think that is a big part of the gospel. We are to share Jesus with the world, but we are also to"know" those that are closest to us. We should know our friends' interests. We should know our friends' weaknesses. The more we know, the more impact we can have on the world. The main purpose of the church today is to show Jesus to the world. But if we don't even know those closest to us that are helping in that mission, how much impact is it going to be?
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