Relationships Trump Vision

There is a lady at our church who smokes on the front steps. Didn't someone tell her that this is wrong? Doesn't she know what she's doing?

She's been coming to church for a couple months now. She sits on the front row during the second service. She sings with all she has, even though all the words are new to her. She claps and sways and does her best to fit in. (Sadly, enough, in churches too, many people feel like they don't fit in.) Sunday she fell asleep during the sermon. Somewhere in II Corinthians 8 she found rest. Somewhere between "sacrificial giving" and "having our identity wrapped up in the temporal" her head fell heavy against her chest.

I've only said "Good Morning" to her a couple times. I've never asked her name. I've never shook her hand. And honestly, after thinking "What does she think she's doing stomping out her cigarette on the church steps!" for about two seconds I got over it. Bring on the sin. Bring it into the church. Get a big wheelbarrow and fill it with your Playboy magazines and beer bottles. Throw in the anger you have toward your dad and the frustration you feel everyday at work. Whatever your burden, struggle, addiction... bring it in. I'll help you carry it up the steps and you can dump all that crap right next to my pile of insecurity, pride, expensive shoes and dieting books. Sinners sin. That's what we do. And lonely, seekers are coming here because it's somewhere that offers something that they can't find on Madison Avenue or at their job Monday - Friday.

It's time that the church do what it was called to do. LOVE. We must realize that some things are just going to be crummy and some people will never see things our way and all the resources may not ever be there, BUT we have to give God a chance to be God. We have to make a difference where we can. To people who smoke on the church steps and cuss in the sanctuary and take a few extra bagels for later during coffee hour. Who cares? Jesus said, "Love thy neighbor." Period. And they all don't wear Seven Jeans and Brooks Brothers suits. They all don't know John 3:16 or how to pray or that Jesus loves them.

*the title Relationships Trump Vision is from Dave Gibbons, author of The Monkey and the Fish