Day 17

Being WITH People (John 13:34)

Back in the day I was something called a “campus pastor.” The church had different site locations and I led the one that was in the cool, hip, downtown area of Memphis, TN. Our church was filled with young professionals—law school and med school students, corporate types, college students, etc. And if you know this season of life you also know that they’re in their transient years meaning as a pastor, I only had 2 or 3 years to win them to Christ and disciple them before they were onto the next season. This caused somewhat of an urgency in me. Sunday services were the fat of your bat for making an impact so I took those services seriously. But even more seriously than I took the sermons and the music were those chats right after service. Hanging out in the lobby. Inviting them to small groups or to service opportunities.

But there was this one guy named SemaJ. Stay with me. SemaJ was a brother from the nearby homeless mission who’d begun worshipping at our church. Many men from the mission made our church their Sunday morning home and this was always a blessing to us. But SemaJ, like so many of our homeless citizens, was likely mentally ill. His real name was “James.” But he’d insist we call him SemaJ, which is James spelled backwards. He’d always say, “The world is backwards so say my name backwards.” Thinking of it now that’s not all that crazy anymore.

SemaJ LOVED to corner me on Sundays after service. Sure I’d invested plenty of time many a Sunday speaking with him. But I had a job to do. I had to win those young professionals for Christ, NOT spend time with SemaJ every weekend talking about God knows what. This one Sunday the church was just packed. Twentysomethings and Thirtysomethings were everywhere. And I was so excited to meet people and shake hands and invite them to their next step. I was working the room. One conversation after another. Then walks in SemaJ. I tried to dodge him! I knew where the conversation was going—NOWHERE! Yet there he was and before I knew it I was watching all of the church’s growth potential walk out of the door whilst SemaJ ranted on about something so much so that instead of listening to him I was looking through him! Ever been there?

Well I was pretty upset at SemaJ. But then the Lord convicted me and said something to the effect of, “Hey…whoever I send you is whoever I send you. And I need you to think less about opportunities and more about the actual people I send you. I need you to be with THEM because even when it looks to you like it’s a waste of time to me it’s an investment to show my love.” Yeah — ouch.

Ever since then I don’t rush past people if I can help it. God taught me through SemaJ that there’s worth in every conversation. Every random encounter. Every human being is a HUMAN BEING. Jesus said in John 13, “love others as I have loved you.”

Let’s do that today, eh?

Ricky