Several years ago, I attended the basketball or volleyball regionals (I don't remember the specific occasions) for Carol's team in the Tennessee Athletic Association of Christian Schools. As part of their participation in a tournament they had to attend chapel at least once during the multi-day event. So for chapel at a this organization, the girls have to wear a skirt or dress and the guys have to wear a tie and button up shirt. As you can imagine this is not one of their most favorite thing to do.
At this one tournament chapel time, I was there and had to wear my skirt and attend as well (I was a chaperon or assisting in volleyball). I remember we were all together at first to sing some songs and then they took the girls and me, to another room. There a young lady spoke to us about her former team mates on a championship team out of Chattanooga. She most spoke about where they were at the time some 10 years later and the activities in which they were involved. What I remember was her joy in describing many of her team mates were now mothers of children, happily married and involved in their churches. But what struck me is she told about one girl on their team who was kind of stand-offish, and she was the only one from their team mates that they could not find out where she was and what her current status was. And you could sense that it really bothered that young woman. She said several of the other girls on the team tried to find this one particular young lady's-a-where a bouts, but to no avail.
So many things could have happened to the loner on the team, and the young woman telling us this said she was most concerned because she didn't know if that one young lady was a Christian or not. She regretted not keeping in touch and being a part of that girls's life. She questioned whether the young woman could have been involved with drugs or in a bad relationship. Perhaps she dealt with a serious depression over a life situation. Or maybe she just wanted someone to come and be concerned about her, and what would she have done if no one around her reached out to her.
I think there is a good lesson here. How hard is it to talk to someone who may be sitting at a lunch table by themselves; or why is it so easy to judge them ....at all? Why can't we let them know they are valued and loved? Will our other friends be so shallow as to ridicule us for speaking or being kind to someone who they deem unfit to be in their social circle?
It is time to step out and just be Jesus to these who seem to want to avoid all contact. If it is not meant to be that you can reach them through some sort of common ground, God will let you know and He will take it from there. But if you will recall, Jesus often interacted with the down and out of humanity in His time here on earth. He invited them to eat with Him, to be healed by Him, but mostly He wanted them to feel like a special person because they met HIM!
Just think about how it could be if you wasted an opportunity to plant a seed of curiosity about Jesus....maybe one day you might be standing in front of a group of young people telling them about the great team you had and how so many have gone on to do great things for Jesus, but that one person--who no one really got to know...you heard they got pretty depressed and committed suicide. I hope you don't have to regret not keeping tabs on your team even after you play ball together. And maybe you can say something like "It took us a while to find out where the young lady who seemed kind of distant was at because she gave her life to Jesus and is now a missionary in a remote part of Africa. We know from a few letters from her that she would like to join her old team mates for a little reunion, but we know she would so appreciate your prayers for the people she is attempting to be Jesus to in that country."
Will you step out of your comfort zone? Will you share the love of Jesus with another person? Will you build and keep a relationship with someone who might be trying to find their purpose in life? This challenge is for me, too! I can do better, and I want to do better. Please God point me to those who I can be kind to and let me realize when the right opportunity comes about to share your love with them!
Judy
Oct. 19, 2015
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