Lesson #2 will take me a couple more minutes. It was a great work day, we had some fun things planned for staff meeting, and all of my charting was done (bonus points). I should have been having a grand time, but I was so distracted by those darn damp socks that I couldn't focus on the positive. All I wanted was to go home and dry my feet. Kind of silly, right? I mean, it's not a death's door problem, it was just an annoyance, but it was preventing me from joining in the fun. It made me wonder how many times I have missed that in someone else? How many times have I forgotten to speak to a person's most immediate need, before pressing on to my own agenda?
Sometimes I get frustrated, because I want to speak to someone's heart and I feel like they aren't hearing me. I want so much to reach them for Christ, that I run right past the opportunity to be Jesus to them. I haven't cared for their most immediate need. If Jesus were walking on earth right now, he would have given me His dry socks. He would have taken them off His own feet and covered mine, and in doing so, He would have both warmed me physically and made me feel loved. Isn't that what it's all about? It's about loving our neighbors and our enemies and, in so doing, leading them to Christ. Not bashing them over the heads with the gospel and wondering why they don't respond.
As you go out and walk through your week, as people are sent across your path, sit down. Listen. Find out what their most basic need might be that day, and meet it. Be hands, be feet, be salt, be light, be the one who cares for the body so that Jesus can minister to their soul.
James 2:
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?
15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.
16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
