I Will Never Be The Same

I experienced something this weekend that will forever be etched in the images of my mind. I don’t think it is an accident that I just finished reading the book “Same Kind of Different as Me”. If you have not had the opportunity to read it yet I encourage you to make it a priority but know that it comes with this warning: YOU WILL FOREVER BE CHANGED! The LORD has used it to soften my heart, change my thinking and respond differently to atrocities such as the one I wandered upon this weekend…
I got a phone call from my precious friend Mari. She is the kind of woman who would save the world if it were possible for one woman to do so. She gives of herself so freely to others and is such an inspiration to me. She was participating in a ministry called Adopt-A-Block as she does every month when the team stumbled upon a precious man of 105 years old. She called me to see if the church could help with some repairs on this home. I had seen his house several times during the last few months from the outside and it was dreadful, but nothing on the face of the earth could have prepared me for what I was about to walk in to. There were floors missing and the walls were actually about to crumble. I could see the bare earth through the multitude of crevices and to top it off every wall in the house displayed mold in a fashion so nauseating that my heart began to literally break in half. I felt as if I had been transported to a third world country. I couldn’t believe that someone in Mt. Pleasant, SC could live this way. How could this be possible? How does this happen only a few miles from where I lay my head down safely each night? How can no one know about this and if they do know, how can they not care enough to do something about it? There are houses going up just a block away that some would consider mansions. Do they know that someone in their own neighborhood lives like this?

Well now I know. My eyes are no longer blind to the reality of poverty in my own backyard. What am I going to do about it? It is overwhelming to consider and I am certain that it is not a burden that I can carry alone. I know my friend Mari will be the first to do what she can. I also know that the Adopt-A-Block team has committed to going back this weekend to clean and repair this home and get involved in this community long term. My prayer is that many others will have the veil removed from their eyes and begin to make a difference in their own community. This is our calling from God. His word speaks incessantly about how we are to treat the poor.

Psalm 82:3

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed


Proverbs 14:31

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

Will you honor God and uphold the cause of the poor in the community around you?  One lesson that I have learned from this experience is that no matter where you live there will always be the poor and the needy.

In The World But Not Of The World

So, I went to a bar the other night. There. I said it. For the first time in fifteen years I went to a bar and it was exactly as I remember. Nothing about the bar scene has changed. It’s sad really. It’s just a new generation of people living life exactly as I was fifteen years ago, lost and broken. Maybe not all of them, but I will bet it is certainly a majority of them.

For those that know me well, you know that I made a decision about six years ago to get rid of cable television in my home. It had a lot to do with money but for us it also had to do with what I want for my family. The temptation for me to use it as a babysitter is way too real because of the circumstances so I decided to remove the temptation and at the same time, loosen my budget for more important things. I also made this decision because I really want to spend time with my family engaged in meaningful, active relationship not in front of the television where no one says a word to each other. Now don’t get me wrong, there are times that we choose to sit in front of a TV for six hours watching Jack Bauer save the world as we did this past Saturday, but those are few and far between. Friday nights are also family movie night for us where we pick a movie, pop some popcorn and hang out on the couch together for a couple of hours and that has become a family tradition for us.

But rather than getting on my soapbox about television I want to tell you what I learned from my experience at the bar. I tell you about the TV because my rationale for going to a bar was to watch some football. To watch South Carolina whip Vanderbilt!!!! I met a couple of girlfriends there and we had lots of fun catching up and watching the game together. As soon as I walked in the door, there were a group of guys who started to flirt a little. If I am completely honest, it made me feel good. It has been a long time since someone has flirted with me, but fortunately I know that is not where my validation comes from. Fortunately who I am in Christ and how he sees me is way more important than what these boys were seeing. But that was not the case fifteen years ago. Back then all of the things that these boys were saying to me would have worked. Now, I just found them shallow. So, after about an hour of what he considered “pick up lines” I had enough. I was honestly disgusted and was really ready to go somewhere and enjoy my time with my girlfriends alone. But something really started to bother me. I could not walk away from this and not once mention my faith. You see, he probably thought that I just wasn’t interested. It happens. I am sure that he has been turned down more than once. But I wanted him to know that I wasn’t turning him down because I wasn’t attracted to him. I was turning him down because I am so attracted to Jesus and I didn’t see Jesus anywhere in this man’s life. So I began to share my faith with him. I must regretfully admit this is a first for me. Usually I just walk away from uncomfortable situations but for some reason this time I couldn’t.

So here’s the interesting part. As soon as I started to share my faith with him, he responded with “Oh I am a Christian too, I go to...” and he went on to mention the church that he attends every Sunday. What escaped from my mouth next really took me by surprise and may or may not have been appropriate but it came out before I could control my tongue. “If you really are a Christ follower, then why are you at this bar getting drunk and trying as hard as you can to get me to go home with you? Isn’t that your ultimate goal here?” His response of course was that was not what he was doing. Really? Give me a break I wasn’t born yesterday and he confirmed it because he didn’t stick around much longer. About 20 minutes later he had moved on to another woman at the bar who was a lot more receptive and a lot more intoxicated.

This is what Jesus was talking about when he said be in the world but not of the world. This is what he meant when he said that you would know his followers by the fruit that they bear. You see this guy was claiming to be a Christian but from what I could see he most certainly did not bear the fruit of Christ. He was claiming to be a Christian but was in the world and very much of the world.

As I have had time to process the evening I have become very aware and saddened by the countless number of people out there who say they are Christians but don’t represent Jesus appropriately. No wonder we have so many people who are confused and turning their backs on Christianity. If this is what I thought Jesus looked like, I wouldn’t want any part of it either. This incident has honestly caused me to take a deep look at myself and ask the question: Am I representing Jesus in my life? I can honestly say that the answer is sometimes no. When I get angry at my children and shout at them. When I hear something from someone that I am really not a part of and go to my girlfriends and tell them about it. What about you? If you honestly assess your life, can you say that you represent Jesus in every area?

So what now? For me, I have committed myself to working on these areas that don’t bear the fruit of Christ through prayer and repentance and of course through my own conduct. My prayer is that those of us who call ourselves Christ followers will be shining examples of Jesus to a hurting and broken world.



Matthew 5:14-16

14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.