Cirque de Emotion`al

I very much enjoy driving in the car by myself. I rarely have the opportunity, but because my husband has been working til 9pm at That Fish Place, I get to go pick him up, and the boys don't come along because they are (hopefully) asleep by this time.

So, usually, I get to sing my guts out for a good 15 minutes. The other day, I was listening to the radio instead of my normal excellent choice of cd. Some weird song came on by a rapper guy who sounded like Eminem, and in fact, his song was a sort-of musical letter to Slim Shady himself. The rapper in the song was reaching out to Eminem- a multi-platinum, millionaire, hard-core rap artist. Wow.

The song was ok, and I was just listening calmly until I heard one line. I don't remember it verbatim, but it kinda went like this, "Most Christians automatically turn their nose up at you, think you're a lost cause, not worth the effort, when in reality they should be on their knees with broken hearts praying out their guts for you."

Literally, when I heard that, (and I'm really glad I was alone in the car) a huge, monstrous, alien-sounding sob came out of my face. Still, thinking about it, there's a lump.

Now, I would presume myself to be one of those nose-thumbers, and not very compassionate for rich, stupid famous people. Like Oprah. I want to kick her in the face most days. I can't explain why I reacted to that obvious Truth with a capital T in the way I did. It had to be the Spirit smacking my soul into realization.

Everybody needs Jesus. Even Oprah, even Tom Cruise, even Barack Obama. Every person living a life without Christ is a tragedy, even if it doesn't look like it at the moment. They may have everything on this Earth- power, money, debatable good looks, and adoring fans- but what is any of that if you are losing your very soul? If somebody is living their life without Christ, they are LOST and need to be FOUND.

Christians need to stop pretending like we get to decide who is worthy of being saved- as if it's our choice and not God's. We can't go around saying, "I'm not going to waste my time telling that person about Christ because it's pretty obvious that they are not going to come around."

Um, who do you think you are, or more importantly, who do you think our God is? Is He not fully capable of bringing ANYONE He wants to Him? He never specified that we should use our own judgement when it comes to telling the Good News.

Now, I know that there is a time to "dust off our sandals" and all that. But, how many Christians are there in this world? And if one decides to dust off his sandals, do all the others do the same, or do they give it a go themselves? I just don't know, kids. Christ never gave up on me, perhaps I should extend the same optimism and hope to everyone else I meet.

Perhaps, if I ever meet Oprah, I should refrain from pulling out her weave and smacking her in the face with one of her horrible Book Club selections. I mean, sure, I'll feel better for a brief second, until I realize that I just gave Oprah a heaping helping of exactly what a Christian shouldn't be. Compassion, understanding. Always hopeful. Always expecting, trusting. This is our part of the construction of the Kingdom- we have no business choosing the materials.