This Is Normal....Isn't It?

(This blog was posted originally in June but ended up on a different blog page, I'm reposting it here on the main page--and I don't know who wrote it.)

When I talk to people about what we here at 1304 do, a lot of the time I get a response something like, "“Wow, that's great. It's unusual to hear about young people doing something like this."” When I hear this, I usually sit back and think for a moment. This is my life, it's normal to me now. It may not always be fun, but who really expects that out of life? But when I think about it, I realize anew that in our society inside and outside of the church, reaching out to strangers to build relationships with them (rather than to preach to them or get them involved in a program) is unusual. It is apparently not normal to reach out to people who are struggling or homeless and sometimes invite them into my home.

I realize, of course, that there is a big, scary world out there with a fair few bad people in it. There are definitely grounds for using caution when we are ministering, but the way that our society encourages us to cut ourselves off from anything unfamiliar or uncomfortable makes it far too easy for us as Christians to forget the world outside our door and to neglect our calling to love it.

I guess that we are an experiment in finding and trying out ways of loving people. You could say that this is the essence of the Christian life and you would be right. But often we allow ourselves to be sidetracked from this part (and others) of our calling as Christians. The challenge, for me and everyone else, is to not grow weary of doing good.