BLESS Every Home: Serve Them
BY PASTOR JADY GRIFFIN
POLAR OPPOSITES
One evening, I experienced one of my most embarrassing and humbling moments. I was just getting home from a mission trip and had a car sitting in the garage that wouldn’t start. In my post-travel exhaustion, I hoped the only problem was the battery. I thought what I had to do was simple: jump the car, run to Autozone, get a battery check, then go from there.
It was a little dark outside, and I could barely see. But in a rush to get it over with, instead of getting a flashlight, I took a guess at which side of the battery was positive and which was negative.
As I started the car, within seconds all of the rubber on the jumper cables began to melt and the garage filled with smoke. I panicked! I grabbed a piece of wood and hit the clamps, trying to get them off. The cables popped off and fell onto the front of the car, rubber melting into the bumper and headlights. It was sheer pandemonium.
I reversed the polarity, meaning I had clamped the positive to the negative. The car went from possibly having a bad battery to practically blowing up. The repair went from a simple jumpstart and short drive to AutoZone to calling a tow truck and explaining to the mechanic that I was a moron.
It’s not hard to make a bad situation worse. When things are not working, it feels like they get more complex the closer you get to them. So we avoid getting too involved in the lives of those around us because the closer we get, the more complex our relationships become. It’s true. People’s lives are usually messy. How do I know? Because my life is messy! And I have never met anyone else whose life wasn’t.
If you’re anything like me, you don’t like messy. I like easy. But if we want to live on mission to bless those around us, we can’t do it from the sidelines. We have to get in the middle of what is happening in their lives so that what Jesus has done in the mess of our lives can work through us. Living on mission means that we meet people in their messes and serve them. That’s step three of B.L.E.S.S.
MORE THAN A HELPER
You may have heard a story from the Gospel of Luke known as “The Good Samaritan.” This is another one of Jesus’ parables to help His followers understand what the kingdom of heaven living in them and through them looks like:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The question “Who is my neighbor?” is an important one for us, too. We know and have heard that to love God is to love our neighbor, but how that looks depends on who you define as your neighbor.
Three people passed by this man who was beaten, robbed and left for dead: a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. The young lawyer would have viewed two of these men as enlightened and important. But when Jesus said Samaritan, it would have pushed every button the young man had.
Samaritans and Jews did not get along. They hated each other, and they had hated each other for a long time. Samaritans would harass Jews traveling through Samaria. Some have said that they would sometimes scatter human bones in Jerusalem and, in turn, the Jews would burn down Samaritan villages. Jews saw Samaritans through a lens of suspicion and hostility, so when Jesus made a Samaritan the hero in this story, it was scandalous.
What Jesus was ultimately helping this teacher of the law to see is that loving our neighbor is not just helping; it’s restoring.
The divisions we have here on earth are not reflected in heaven. So, if we are going to bring heaven to earth, we must serve not just our neighbors who look like us, talk like us, and believe like us but also our neighbors who don’t.
When we step into someone else’s mess, they don’t just experience help. They experience healing. There is power in compassion to heal the pain and tension around them. It’s a chain effect.
TRANSFORMATIVE FRIENDSHIP
Daryl Davis is a blues musician from Chicago. One night after he played at a bar, a young man walked up to him. The man encouraged his musicianship, and they started talking about music and the people who have influenced the blues. Eventually, they sat down at a table and had a drink.
In the middle of the conversation, the young man said, “You know this is the first time I have had a drink with a Black man?”
A little surprised, Daryl asked how that was possible. The man answered that he was in the Ku Klux Klan.
What followed was a journey of Daryl leaning into this young man as a friend and being there for him. Their relationship led to him leaving the KKK, and he was never part of that life again!
How did this happen? When we get into the mess with people, serve them, and show compassion to them, it does more than help them; it restores them.
Since that first conversation Daryl had almost 30 years ago, he has become friends with over two hundred KKK members who left the organization for good. (SOURCE)
SERVING A PURPOSE
God is inviting us to open our eyes and pursue the people around us– not just to know them but to dive into their world. Before people can hear a message about a God who loves them, they need to know that we are with them and for them. When we step into their mess, it tills the soil of the soul. Our tilling of prayer, encouragement, and serving demonstrates the kingdom of heaven to them. This can lead to a moment where we can share Jesus with them. All the lies the enemy has been telling them, and all the chaos they are living in are removed. And heaven comes.
Even when we recognize what a privilege this is, it can feel overwhelming. The amount of need we see all around us is huge, and, at the same time, we are trying to survive our own mess! So the thought of doing anything for anyone else can sometimes feel like too much.
There is a quote from Pastor Andy Stanley that I remind myself of frequently:
Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.”
The story Jesus told was not about a Samaritan who helped everyone. He was one man who helped one person. The Good Samaritan also didn’t just throw him some money or a smile; he gave him all he had! He did it all for one.
You don’t have the solution for every problem you see. We can’t do everything, but we can all do something. God has placed us exactly where He has so that heaven can come through us as we bless those around us.
TAKE A STEP
Find a quiet moment and pray this short yet powerful prayer:
God, give me eyes to see. Open my eyes, so I don’t just walk past the hurting people around me. Help me, Lord, to be a better listener, an encouragement-giver, and a mess-engager. Lead me to pray without ceasing.
Before moving on, sit for just a minute longer. As you sit and wait, be attentive. Is God bringing someone to mind? What is going on in their life? Is there a way you can show up for them or meet a need?
The BLESS EVERY HOME App
B.L.E.S.S. is a practical path to sharing the gospel of Jesus with our neighbors. Click below to download the BLESS EVERY HOME app. This tool allows you to adopt homes in your neighborhood to pray for and sends you daily reminders to help you stay focused on missional living.
