Another Monday following another Sunday; funny thing is they fall that way every week. It comes as no surprise and yet every Sunday I’m surprised by the people who think Sunday is merely a portal to a new week. They take serious that the Lord said it was a day of rest but consider the gospel as an option. My frustration mounts week after week, and yet I don’t do a whole lot about it either. I witness and warn but they take me about as serious as a tinkling cymbals on that monkey I remember as child. Goofy thing… it sticks in my mind this morning how he would clang the cymbals and dance around and serve no other purpose than making a noise. Even as a child I didn’t like useless noises, there had to be a purpose.
Have I turned into that dancing monkey?
I began writing today thinking that my focus was going to be on alleviating my frustrations with people who don’t attend church, and wouldn’t you know it God would turn that thing right around to me. Ha! He’s funny like that too.
Luke 7:32-35
They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children.
Can you see it? A prime opportunity to get on my high horse and rail on people who laid out of church yesterday and yet God said I’d just be like that monkey with the tinkling cymbals, all noise and of no useful purpose. While they may be playing games with eternity (a scary thought) making a lot of noise is not a way to get something accomplished, I’ve got to find a better way at getting through.
Jesus didn’t play their games but he did show up on their court. He went to where they were and showed Himself friendly not judgmental. He knew they were playing games, he knew they didn’t take eternity serious but when they needed Him He was there. I guess that’s my cue for the day, go to where they are and be the constant steady source for which the sinner see.
Be the one who cares. Be the one whose kind. Be the one whose wisdom is justified. The one that they look at and say I want that… that peace, that love, that understanding. No games, make Jesus real to them.
