This isn't from John but it's what I want to focus on for this particular post. It is particularly fitting in today's world.
Like all things in this world, at times there is great debate and argument when people refer to Jesus as a rebel. I've done it many times without even realizes that to some it has a negative connotation in some way. Go figure.
So as I so often do I mused on it over time and I still think of Jesus as a rebel and I love him all the more for it. Jesus refused to be stuck in a stereotypical role, a role of what a spiritual leader was viewed as in his day.
He refused to follow worldly "rules" that He knew were in conflict with God's. He "hung out" with sinners, he drank water at the well with the Samaritan woman, he healed lepers, he challenged the "established norms" of his day. Why?
"I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners..." Sometimes to call those sinners we have to be present in their world. Being present in their world doesn't necessarily mean dragging them into our church on a Sunday morning. Honestly, that might come much later. Being present in their world doesn't mean going into a dangerous neighborhood either. What I mean by being present in their world is to suspend judgement of their life and honestly make a serious attempt to see things from their world view. It's hard to step up to people we don't know, to have a conversation with someone that is "different" than we are, to open ourselves to a "life" that is not as we imagine it "should" be. How much it enriches our soul to do so though.
We need more light in the world and light shines the brightest in the darkness. Fear Not
Hugs, I feel like this was a rambling post but then some of my best reflections start out as vague disjointed thoughts. Be the Light.
