I'm irritated - I'm so irritated I had to write this instead of grading papers (not that I need much excuse, really). And I don't think I'm irritated because of hormones, disease, or fatigue...though those might be assisting.
I couldn't attend Out of the Box (One28's evangelism event) because I came down with an amazingly nasty cold this past week that floored me. I don't do well with such things - I like making my body do what *I* want it to do. Thus the reason pregnancy is also irritating me - I'm realizing I can't just push through fatigue that makes me fall asleep any time, anywhere, in about 1.5 seconds.
As I was writing to SKH to explain this to him (though let's be honest, I also have A LOT of MP Running Start students, and I was wondering how that would work out if I was able to go), I mused whether or not there was a 'safer' form of Evangelism for, say, Jr. High girls whose parents aren't wild about the idea of them with the heathen wolves of a public school football game.
I then realized that was, potentially, the most stupid thing I have ever asked. I'm reading through Acts, and I couldn't think of a less-safe occupation than Paul's. Nor can I think of a more rewarding. Evangelism is not about being safe - are we seriously willing to see people's souls sent to Hell because we don't want our pure, innocent minds watching hormonal people making out on the bleachers? I can't even imagine what Paul saw at Corinth or Rome!
I just think we're too safe. My Small Group girls are way too safe. How can you grow and be refined without any fire? Without the Potter's Wheel? My girls are sitting like cute little lumps of unfired clay...very nice unfired clay, but never-the-less, lumps on a shelf. What's the point? How can I inspire them to grow...help build a fire...without any sticks of persecution, challenge, questioning, brokenness, fear, insufficiency, or cruelty?
I think I've posted a similar post before. What do I do? Do Teresa and I start planning small groups around events that specifically push them and make them uncomfortable? Am I railing against a sovereign God who knows all this and will be faithful to complete what He has begun in these girls, apart from me? Should I trust? Should I yell? Comfort and safety and insulation are, I think, becoming some of the biggest threats to Christianity - at least, the Church I know and love and see each week. There is NOTHING in the Bible, and especially the New Testament, about playing it safe. After all, we are playing for keeps - the stakes are huge, and though we must be wise and gentle and pure, we can't leave it all on the field if we never even go ON the field.
3 comments:
I think Paul would be very pleased with your post, not because you gave right answers per se but because you expressed his kind of agony.
Leila, you ask some very good questions and I would definitely agree with you. There is nothing in Scripture about choosing our safety over giving others the gospel. We do need to be wise, but we can't let that get in the way of the good news. Christ did not die so that we might be safe, but that we might have eternal life. I think if we understood that then we would take more risks for the sake of Jesus.
hey we're cute lumps of clay? ouch
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