My momma used to tell me, "Son, if you play with fire you're gonna get burned." Bet yours did too. I know it was a part of the "don't drink or smoke or chew or run around with those that do" campaign that my mom and yours tried to drill into our heads. But there's an outreach peril that we risk if we take that too far.Campfires have a sweet spot.
You know how it is, you back up too close, too hot... but one step the other direction and, on a cold night, that's just too far away... there's that perfect spot. Not burned, not cold, just right.
Jesus always seemed to find the sweet spot. Close enough to the hapless crowd to be "moved with compassion", close enough to a tax collector to know that he must go to his house, close enough to a maniac to leave him clothed and in his right mind. Not so close that he became one of them, but close enough for them to become one of Him.
Is it possible we've gotten so far away from the fire that we've grown cold?
I'm pretty sure I need to get closer. Close enough to see and hear and touch and smell someone's pain. Close enough to be moved. The Bible says of Jesus over and over that he was moved. Moved with compassion. That means he got close enough that love took over. He couldn't sit there any longer. He had to do something. So he moved.
Are you close enough to move?
BC
1 - read/write comments:
I'm with you. For far too long we have Pinochio'd people. You remember Pinoch', before he became a real boy, or even a wooden boy, he was a puppet on a string. On a string, the movements were/are pretty jerky, not real, quite obviously fake. The longer the string, the more fake it appears. The string is the distance from "real people" that we are...we want to "help" from a distance...the further the distance, the less real it appears. You know a puppet show when you see it.
Of course, we never get too close. If you reach for the puppet, the strings can get tangled.
Keeping our distance keeps us from getting tangled up in situations that make us uncomfortable.
Think of how excited Pinochio was when he lost the strings! He was still a wooden boy but wow! AND THEN - he became a REAL boy! I just have to believe that those are the kinds of emotions that the lunatic & the tax collector must have had when Jesus got close enough to touch them.
Keep it up! I'm loving it...
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