We are human beings, not human doings.
–attributed to the Dalai Lama, Kurt Vonnegut, and others
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill can not be hidden…let your light shine before others…”
–Matthew 5:14-16 (excerpts)
Love one another.
Share the Good News.
I love having a deep, getting-deeper-every-day relationship with my Lord and I want more than anything else to share with others what they can have through Him.
Then I get bogged down…
I, um, tend to overanalyze a little…and I start thinking I have to have the perfect opening line (is there a “Discipleship for Dummies?”), and answers to EVERY possible argument or question, and I don’t want to sound pushy or phony or “holier than thou” or use too many obnoxiously pretentious words, or words “only Christians understand,” although, honestly, a simple, comprehensible definition of “righteousness” still eludes me…
Dudes, I make it sooooo difficult…
My friend John didn’t give ANY of that a thought.
When I met John, I was twenty-four years old; he was a little older, and way more cool, than me. I was wandering in the wilderness, having tried to find happiness? fulfillment? (it’s a little unclear what my actual goal was) in “all things worldly;” John had been there, done that, and was striking down a new path.
He was CHANGING…
He was still John…but…BETTER.
In fact, he was…more John.
He had this…thing…this confidence…like “I just won the lottery and now I’ve got a bazillion dollars and no more worries, and I simply haven’t told anyone yet.”
So, one night, I cornered him…
“What is up with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re like…DIFFERENT. You’re calm. You seem…really…happy? Did something happen?”
“Are you just asking or do you really wanna know?”
“I really wanna know.”
“Jesus.”
He said His name, with an air of finality, like there was nothing else to say.
In the past, I would’ve responded with an eye roll and “Oh, no, you’re one of THOSE people…oh, my gosh, where’s the tent and the guy with the bad suit?!”
But he cut through all that…him and the Lord, I guess…because the next thing I knew, my mouth opened and I said…
“Tell me more.”
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear…but it was more than that.
It was that “being, not doing” thing.
John was just being himself…
Letting his “light shine before others…”
And he led me to the greatest gift of my life.
Jesus.