Far Before Us

Though it has been weeks since my last post, it seems like content for a hundred posts has occurred in that time. I need this blog because it refocuses me in the face of resistence. See, I have been getting a taste of my own medicine after preaching out of John 9.  In that passage, Jesus encounters a blind man. And what was the reason for his blindness? "This came about so that God's works might be displayed in him" (John 9:3). When I get hurt, when my car goes to the salvage yard, when the bank account is bone dry: I trust that these circumstances "came about so that God's works might be displayed" in me... And they have.

One cross to bear when doing life with real people and rough people is the day-to-day conflict resolution. We took some teens over to the City Life Center on Tuesday, and three of them were about to throw down near the end of the night. I pulled one aside, and he didn't mince words: "I'm about to put a bullet in his f***ing head." It's cool how God works in the strangest moments. "Hey man, you are held to a higher standard because you said that you're following Jesus with your life. They [the other kids] never said that... But you know what we just went through in 1 John... If this is how you're interacting with people time in and time out, it shows that you're not legit."

1 John 3:15

"Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him."

The kid didn't answer how'd you expect. He said, "Well, I guess you're right... You turned me. I'm an atheist now." Life is stressful sometimes... I thought God was working in this guy's heart. I've poured a lot into him over the last year, and now this?

What I hadn't realized was that a teenager named Caleb had overheard the whole thing. This young man straightened out like I've never seen. "Well I'm done with acting like that. I'm following Jesus now." He spoke in a surprisingly matter-of-fact way. Even though Caleb lives just a few streets over from the City Life Center, he asked to stay in the car with Jesse and me through our ride to East 80 something to drop off Dante. Caleb brought up some things at church and a recent time that he joined in for discipleship... And Caleb is serious about being serious even though life change doesn't happen over night. He is such a punk that no one will believe it until they see it, but I kid you not, Jesse asked me "Who was that kid?" when Caleb got out of the car. After months of knowing him, we did not see this Spirit change coming.

And then right again, God was seen in the unexpected. The angry kid from earlier - the one that had renounced his faith earlier - dialed me up while I'm riding in the car. "Hey man, I'm calm now. Went upstairs and saw my shirt hanging up with the back facing me. Sat on my bed and read it over and over again." On the back of that church shirt is the gospel: "Jesus died in place of criminals and rose from the dead, proving He is God." This kid went on to explain that the gospel put him back in his place.

So the scene was weird and stressful, one that I thought I could do without. However, things got real for these two young men. God did what only God could. Things have been real for me, too. Of late, God has come through enormously and unexpectedly; this includes a car that was pieced together by a mechanic and brother in Christ who hadn't ever met me! I never will outgrow the situations that our beyond me, so I hold onto to God who goes before me. When will I learn.