During my second year of seminary I wrote a proposal for my internship. It was only one page and it only had three points because the details would have to wait as much of how the internship would pan out was still unknown. But three things I was clear about. “I feel called to walk with God, not just people who know him, but God himself. I feel called to walk with whomever he places in my path without choosing whom I have a preference for and I feel called to walk to churches so that I can encourage them to walk with God and walk with whomever he places in their path.”
Three things I was clear about. I didn’t know where these principles would take me but I knew that I was called to walk with God, to walk with people and to walk to churches. Although 13 years have passed since I wrote that one page I remain clear about these three things. I haven’t always known where I’m called to walk but I have remained clear about how I’m called to walk, with God, with people and with the church.
These convictions have prompted me to walk into places I otherwise would never have set foot and they have led me to walk with people that I probably would have rushed past if I had been walking according to my preference. I remember one such occasion when I was walking through Worthington, Minnesota. I remember it was raining on this particular day and I had just sat under an overpass to get out of the rain and to patch up the blisters on my feet.
I had at this point been walking with God, walking with people and walking to churches for about 1500 miles and I was tired and grumpy and it was cold and wet and when I stepped back out into the rain I remember distinctly that I wasn’t loving walking with God. I wanted to be sitting with God in a nice warm chair, in a nice warm house, with a nice warm cup of coffee. I found that walking with God is amazing, but it isn’t always nice, at least not how we define it.
It was then that a car pulled over and asked if I needed a ride. “No”, I said and continued with very little enthusiasm, “I’m walking with Jesus.” The woman responded, “Aren’t you afraid?” “No,” I said, “Jesus can see where I am and he’s keeping an eye out for me.” The woman paused for only a moment and then asked, “Can I talk to you?” The call on my life went through my head…whoever God puts in my path without preference.
She pulled off into the parking lot of a John Deere tractor store and invited me to sit in her car to get out of the rain. As soon as we were both seated in the car this young woman began to weep and through the sobs she said, “My boyfriend abuses me. He doesn’t let me out of the house and yesterday I decided that I’d had enough and I had to get out. This morning I took our child and I put him in the car seat and I took the keys to the car, but when I got to the back door my boyfriend was standing there and he told me I could take the kid or the car but not both. She continued, "I didn’t know what to do so I left my kid and jumped in the car and now I can’t go back but I have to get my kid. Can you help me?"
Whomever he places in my path without choosing whom I have a preference for.
I didn’t know what to do, but knew I had no choice but to figure it out if I was going to be faithful to the call. Through a series of crazy events the police came to our assistance, the child was given to its mother and that evening all three of us were taken in by a family who was also called to walk with God and walk with people. After dinner together with this family the young woman asked me, “Is it always like this for you?” I smiled and said, “Well not exactly like this, but on the best occasions this is what it’s like to be a part of the family of God. We sit around tables together sharing what we have with one another.”
The young woman was thoughtful and then said, “I’ve been trying to learn about God. I went to a church because they were giving away free winter coats and I got a coat but they didn’t tell me anything about God. And I have a children’s book about God that I read to Ethan, but I don’t really get it.” She continued with words that have stuck with me for the past 13 years, “It’s like there are two circles, you guys are all in one and you know stuff and we’re all in another and we don’t know stuff. Fact is, we don’t even know we need to know stuff and the two circles don’t cross. How come you don’t share stuff with us?”
This morning in chapel we begin a new series. In September we talked about the good vision of God’s community. In October we affirmed that it’s so good that we would even put aside our differences to keep it intact. Now in November we want to challenge you if you are convinced that this really is good news. Why not place yourself in some strategic places where you can share some of this stuff with people who are in other circles.
