So I was standing in line at the DMV. In front of me was a skinny little guy with long frizzy hair, ragged shirt, jeans, and a tattoo on his arm. It was the tattoo that got to me—a picture of a satanic symbol.
I looked at it for a long minute and started to do a slow burn at the insult toward Jesus. I thought about the clever, devastating things I could say to challenge this guy.
But then my spirit did an about-face. I realized that he was not my enemy, but rather a prospect! Christ did not want to defeat him like I did. Christ wanted to win him over.
Some of Jesus’ favorite people were those who were defiant, “in-your-face” individuals who faced things with vigor and determination. He liked Nathaniel for being openly skeptical—said he was a man in whom there was no guile. He liked the outspoken, aggressive Simon—called him the Rock. And he just downright chased Saul down to recruit him, even though the man viciously attacked Christianity.
Jesus valued them because, right or wrong, they were willing to commit.
Jesus once told the church in Laodicea that he wished they would be more committed one way or the other. “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:16).
The young man with
the satanic symbol tattooed on his arm was more likely to become a committed follower of Jesus than lukewarm Christians are.
The biggest
problems the church has are not atheism or Satan worship. In fact those adversaries often do us the service of waking us up
to the urgency of our calling.
Churches fail because there are so many of us who profess to be Christians but are not very committed
to the cause of Christ. They don’t commit with their money, time, or actions. They don’t read their Bibles, they don’t
put their values into practice at the workplace, and they don’t teach their children the importance of serving God.
Am I too
harsh? I don’t think so. In southwestern United States—part of the Bible belt, you can look in any town on any given Sunday,
and if you were to combine the attendance of all the churches, it still wouldn’t equal half of the total population. Most of
the people who choose not to worship Jesus that day call themselves Christians.
What will it take to wake us up? The bombing
of the World Trade Center made virtually no difference in church attendance. The horrors of a war are not bringing people in.
Did Jesus’ words wake up the church of Laodicea? I don’t know but he told them their time was short. So is ours.