Christianity Walking - a follow-up post.

Fog rolls away as I walk down the sidewalk, hands buried deep in my sweatshirt pockets, trying to wipe the fog from my brain. My puppy nudges me with his nose, asking me to walk faster... at six in the morning? this is as fast as I'm getting. I pass a home cloaked in complete darkness, everyone still sound asleep. Here is a home with a dim light int he upstairs window, the college kid who rents the upstairs bedroom is no doubt struggling to wake up - just like me. Another home with a dim light in the kitchen, I can distinctly smell coffee.

Every day I take this walk, three times a day actually. Same homes, same people. I've only lived here three months, but there is a lot you can learn from walking past peoples homes everyday.  There is the older gentleman in the little brick house with the arched door. He's a bookworm, every inch of what I can see through the door is taken up with books, literally floor to ceiling books. There's the college girl, with her junker car, she's an exchange student -her accent is thick as she talks to my dog. There's the firemen lounging on their bench. There's the lady with the immaculate gardens, her refined bearing is coupled with a sweet smile. There's the little boy, no more than 11, head down his face is sad, but he always smiles down at my puppy.

At work I pick up the phone as it rings, our office is small, and I've quickly come to put a face to who I'm talking. She's a jolly little lady, she slips catnip to the office cat every time she comes in. She jokes with me as I set up an appointment for her, you'd never know from her voice that she has cancer.  A lonely old man comes by to pick up papers, he lingers by my desk to chat. There's a young woman calling, her father just died, and as she sobs, she asks that we help her with his final affairs. Another lady blusters in and out, signing papers as fast as she can, her three year old grandson shows me his toy. 

An older lady sits all alone on a church pew, her face hard and resolute, I've seen her there every Sunday, always slipping out right before the service ends. An old man looks down at his hands as he walks away from the church organ, there is a tear in his eye as he flexes his stiff fingers. A girl sits alone, the only one from her family, brought by the church buss. She is uncomfortable and self conscious, her face generally hidden by a webbing of brown hair. 

So many people that I bump into everyday. So, so many hurting people. People who need help, people who need help, but most of all? People who just need a friend. 

Yes, they are lost and hopeless, and I may be the only Jesus they see today. But will they see Him in me? 

This is why I am so afraid of Christian snobbery. Because snobbery keeps you so focused on yourself and on critiquing everyone else that you never see all the millions of people in the background.  You are so zeroed in on being perfect, that you miss life. And all those millions of people? They keep carrying their load, and your disdainful look at their clothing only adds one more bitter drop to their cup. 

I read this quote today, by a lovely christian lady, it echos the hurt that I have felt and have heard from others. 

"And when I was the one in the throes of deep depression and illness, I felt like a leper no one would come near -- when I was the "least of these", where was Jesus with skin on? Where was the church?" ~Nacole

If people within the church feel that, what about people outside of the church? They are not some separate race of humans without feelings. They can see when we strain to avoid them. They know when we patronize them. They hurt when we fling sloppily veiled hints about what we think of them. 

All those people. People in the church, people outside of it. They all need the hope of salvation. But they also need someone to show it to them. I want to be "Jesus with the skin on" to them. I want to be their friend.  I don't have to live like them, or dress like them, or go the same places they go. I just need to listen, to care, to  love them. He loves me, even though I am frail and weak, and generally falling face first into some mistake. 

So to anyone wondering. No, I won't be a Christian snob, but I will be a Christian friend. That's all I want, just to portray Jesus to someone. 

I'll talk books with the bookworm, I'll ask the exchange student how she's doing at school and if she needs helping finding anything in town, I'll swap recipes and cat stories with the lady from work, I'll stop and actually talk to the man who pauses by my desk, I'll take a plate of muffins to the woman who just lost her father, I'll try and say hi to the lady as she leaves the church, I'll stop and hug the lonely girl. 

Not because I'm a polished example of christian virtue, but because really, I'm just like them, only I've found Jesus and He has given me Himself, and that includes His compassion. 

 ^"But When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

So tomorrow, as I groggily walk down the sidewalk, I want to be Jesus to all the people I meet, because that's Christianity walking. 

Fine Print: Quote not mine all credit goes to Nacole. Images not mine - Pinterest.