Advent Day 17: Sharing the 'Good News'

If you've been alive for at least 18 years, it's likely that you've heard once or twice or more the Good News of the Gospel about Jesus, Son of God, come to take away your sins.  You've probably heard or been led through or been offered the sinner's prayer to ask Jesus into your heart so that you are saved from eternal damnation.  

I have been on both ends of this scenario, walking down the steps of Cleveland Stadium to pray with one of Billy Graham's disciples and accept Jesus into my heart, receiving a Psalty Bible and a cassette tape of praise songs.  I've handed out tracts (with candy) at Halloween... yeah, I was that person in your neighborhood, Akronites.  They were really big candy bars, at least.  

I don't think I've ever actually tried to lead someone through the traditional sinner's prayer, but I have felt that edge of adrenaline rush when someone came to me seeking solace or direction, and I could offer them some direction, out of my own experience.  I don't think I've ever told someone, "Jesus is the answer."

I've never been a pat answer kind of person.  

Nothing in life has ever seemed that simple.  Scratch the surface a little and the perfect layer of soil reveals all kinds of pebbles, clay, grubs, and broken glass buried that needs to be tended to, needs to be addressed.  I can go around all day shouting, "Jesus is the answer!" and I am pretty sure that no one would ask me what's the question.

Even if Jesus is the answer (and I like to think that Jesus answers quite a few of our questions about life, suffering, pain, love, and peace), memorizing some simple formula for praying a person into the Kingdom or being prepared to hand a stranger a sheet of paper with the path to Hell mapped out intercepted by the bridge to Heaven, well, I'm just not convinced that is the most effective way to share good news.

If you are going to be an evangelist, for Jesus or whatever your cause is (Confession: lately, we've been more evangelical about diet and nutrition than Jesus), I think perhaps the best model for evangelizing comes in today's advent passage.  The shepherds have just witnessed a miraculous event: angels came down and shared an amazing message with them.  The shepherds investigate - is it true what has been said? - and only after investigating for themselves do they venture out to share with others what had happened to them.

It's my belief that the general hurting population doesn't want to hear, "Jesus is the answer!" The most powerful messages delivered to me came from other hurting people who opened up and shared a piece of their vulnerable stories to show how God had entered into their lives in some way.  These were often not "I was sick and now I'm well" stories; more often than not, they were "I was very broken, and now I am in the process of mending" stories.  Somewhere along their journey, probably when they were near their lowest, God intersected their paths and even in the darkness, hope began to spring forth, the hurt began to heal, peace brought a calm to the storm, and grace washed away pain.  

It's from that place the real journey begins - and that journey, if it's honest, will be riddled with investigative questioning of God. All emotional responses are on the table.  Share that exchange with God, some real, authentic experience you've had that took your relationship with God and your own spirit and soul to a new place, and then, well, people might hear you.

It makes me think of this little excerpt from the Johnny Cash movie, Walk the Line:

Sam Phillips: You know exactly what I'm telling you. We've already heard that song a hundred times. Just like that. Just... like... how... you... sing it. 

Johnny Cash: Well you didn't let us bring it home. 

Sam Phillips: Bring... bring it home? All right, let's bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing *one* song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you're dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin' me that's the song you'd sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day, about your peace within, and how it's real, and how you're gonna shout it? Or... would you sing somethin' different. Somethin' real. Somethin' *you* felt. Cause I'm telling you right now, that's the kind of song people want to hear. That's the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain't got nothin' to do with believin' in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believin' in yourself. 

Johnny Cash: [after a pause] I got a couple of songs I wrote in the Air Force. You got anything against the Air Force? 

Sam Phillips: No. 

Johnny Cash: I do.

"When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.' So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them." - Luke 2:15-18

Advent Activity: Catch Up on Something

So... I think tonight we're supposed to wrap Christmas presents, but since we haven't actually bought Christmas presents yet, that might be a bit of a challenge.  If I'm feeling well enough, I might take the children to the store to shop, but this cold/flu thing has me running on nearly empty and I don't want to overdue it.  We're also supposed to deliver Christmas cookies... ha ha ha.

Telling People How Much You Suck...

....so that God can be glorified. That's the point of testimonies, at least to some degree. And Sunday, I get to do that in front of our church body and a bunch of college students who want an iPod. I'm pretty darn excited. And a shade nervous - I haven't done this in a while, and while I am great at making myself vulnerable (here is my sleeve, and pinned to it, my heart...), there's something particularly nerve-inducing about sharing how God has made His presence known in your life, often through your flounders.

Flounder is a really cute fish in The Little Mermaid. It is also a tasty fish. But mostly, it's me flopping around on stage, blathering and bumbling. Get me back in my fishbowl, man!

For those of you who read this and won't be at 5 Stones Sunday morning for the sweet iPod promo, ("and you thought only your mom would bribe you to come to church...") here's my shpeel in writing. It will likely not come out of my mouth this way, (oh if I were only so eloquent in speech!) but this is what I'm going for. It is just the beginning of my God-tale. There's so much more he's done and continues to do. I could write a whole series.

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I was a sarcastic, self-conscious, introverted, egotistical, over-achieving high school band dork. I strived for perfection on every turn. I was angry that God would even consider loving someone like a murderer or rapist or popular person in my high school – He should be the righteous judge and condemn them all to hell. Obviously, the concept of grace was foreign to me.

I also struggled to merge what was taught in science classes about evolution with what was taught in church about creation. These are two specific roadblocks that Satan used to try to deflect me from meeting the true God. As a senior in high school, I had been studying other religions, reading books about evolution and creation, and trying to resolve this battle. One day, a switch was flipped in my brain, and I went from saying, “Psh! Those creationists are nuts!” to looking out the window of my car as I drove down the highway and saying, “How could there not be a God?! Look at the trees! Look at the sky! Look at the birds!” All the research I did helped me know about micro-biology and evolutionary principles, but only God can open up eyes like that. The scales fell away.

The third distraction came in the form of a boyfriend I met and fell madly in love with after graduating from high school. Eric was romantic and exotic, a Parrothead in search of his very own Margaritaville – the perfect distraction in my hunt for the real God dwelling in the real Paradise.

By random draw and God’s providence, I ended up roommates with my best friend from high school. She invited me, yet again, to Bible studies, the Well, and FCA on campus. She was a persistent little evangelist! I remember the first time I went to the Well – I could FEEL a presence in the room like I’d never felt before – that calm, peace, and strange movement of the Holy Spirit. It was breathtaking.

Eric and I got physically involved really fast. By October of my freshman year at AU, I thought I might be pregnant. While I worried and fretted that everything I had ever strived for was all for nothing, it finally occurred to me that I am out of control. I do the things I do not want to do. I cannot do life the right way on my own. I have no control over my plans, my future, my life, and there is only one person who does – Jesus Christ. At a Bible study one night, I confessed all that had been happening with Eric. For the first time in my life, I understood grace. I understood mercy. I understood forgiveness. As Paul says in Romans 7:24-25 – “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Like any other new believer, I expected all things to be better immediately. But I still loved Eric, I wanted to be with him even though he wasn’t a believer and had no interest whatsoever in Jesus Christ. Through His gentleness and firmness, God gradually removed Eric from my life, first moving him to North Carolina, then sending him off on some wild trip to Thailand and Vietnam that did not involve missionaries in the mountains... like he said it was going to. In the end, God made Eric fall out of love with me, and that is what it took for me to let go, and let God be God of my heart.

About six months or so after God ended my relationship with Eric, I had finally felt like I was okay with being single. About a week later, I met my husband. Brandon and I have both been down similar roads with our scarring relationships, but most importantly, we both believe in a God who is merciful, just, loving, forgiving, constant, mysterious, and real – and without that foundation, our relationship would have been destroyed fast. Enough evil and unfair events happen in our lives to turn people with common interests against each other in a heartbeat, but if you have faith and have faith together, God who “began a good work in you” will carry it on to completion, together.

During my tumultuous relationship with Eric, a friend of mine gave me a verse to rely on. So often I have felt bewildered at where I am in life or where I was going. My anxiety levels were high – should I transfer colleges to be closer to Eric, should I move, should I marry, should I take this job, should I stay at home with my kids – and this verse among so many others like it in Scripture has kept me grounded. From Isaiah 42:16 – “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, down unfamiliar paths I will guide them. I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” This is a promise God makes to each of us if we’d just let him take over. It will be okay. We will make it through this, one way or the other. And it’s probable that the end results will be the most unlikely place you ever thought you’d find yourself, but better and more amazing than you could have imagined.