This morning I woke up extremely sore. Before I tell you why I'm sore, and more importantly why I am telling you all this, you have to promise me something. You can't laugh. Not even a little. Now since you have promised not to laugh at me, you may now proceed reading.
Back to my story. This morning I woke up sore. The reason I woke up sore was because last night I spent over two hours playing Hacky Sack with a few students. It was a great time of talking and playing.
It has been years since I have played Hacky Sack, if I ever did, which I learned last night is really called foot bag. It was fun, as the night progressed I got better and better, still not great but definitely saw improvement.
I spent those two hours talking and hanging out with two of the students I met over the last few months. We did not talk about anything terribly significant. We did not have a "spiritual" conversation. Half the time we weren't even talking, just playing.
But you know what? I would rank what happened last night as one of the most important things I could do ministry wise while serving in Oregon. Why would I say such a thing? How is it that playing a game for two hours is more important than leading someone to the Lord, or discipling Christians to go and make disciples? Because they are people. Not projects.
If I went into every interaction with non-believers with the agenda of convincing them to become Christians I would make them all into projects. No matter how hard I tried not to. If Jesus truly is my standard projects don't exist. He loved people where they where. He didn't push them to become more like him before He loved them. He didn't ask them to change before He loved them. He just loved them. Then this amazing thing happened, they loved Him.
Those two students I played Hacky Sack with may have learned absolutely nothing about "Christianity" last night. You know what they did learn? They learned I love them enough to play a game with them for two hours. A game they had to teach me. I love them enough to play, talk to them about their life, and not push an agenda down their throat while doing it.
I am a reflection of Jesus. By me loving them I am showing them He loves them. If they see how He loves them, maybe they will learn to love Him as well.
