Wow! I am hurting big time. I just got home from playing basketball at the church, and my knees are killing me! I had ACL surgery on my left knee about four years, but instead of fixing my ACL I think they just replaced my entire knee with one from a seventy-year-old. However, I can't blame my poor shooting tonight on my knee...that blame will go to the slippery gym floor. You could say i threw up a couple of "bricks." (I think thats gangster for a bad shot, but I will ask Jim later)
In life there are people you love, people you hate, and people you just put up with because you have to. Open Gym for Basketball at my church brings in a plethora of people. There are fifty-year-old man and there are teenagers. There are preachers and there are people who just got out of prison. There are Black people and White people. There are people easy to love and there are people how make it hard for you to like them. All of these people come together every Monday at Town and Country Christian Church to play basketball.
There are two particular people that play basketball who would be in the "people who make it hard for you to like them" category. All they do is whine about how they always get fouled, but they never foul anyone. Every time they get the ball, they either shoot it, or they drive to the basketball screaming "FOUL!" as they are going up to shoot. Tonight was particularly bad and annoying for these two guys. I finally had enough and whispered to a guy who used to be an elder, "I really don't like these guys." He replied with a quick, "Yea, me neither." As I walked to the other end of the court, it hit me like God had dropped a brick out of heaven to hit me right on my ignorant big head. These guys don't know Christ, and they are going to hell if they don't know Jesus. Open Gym on Monday night is not for me to come work on my jump shot and run up and down the court. It is a ministry to get them in the church, and then to bring them to Christ somehow.
Ironically, earlier today before basketball I went to lunch with David, Jim and one of my friends from K-State Rachel. We went to Subway, and all of us men got a 5 Dollar Foot long (I love those commercials)! Rachel wussed out and got a 6 inch, but I'm not holding that against her. Anyways, we sat in Subway for about 40 more minutes discussing discipleship and evangelism. It was an awesome conversation and great encouragement. Someone brought up the point that it isn't right how some people evangelize. Some people come off as door-to-door salesman trying to "sell" Jesus. Their motives are selfish and ignorant. They try to bring people to Christ because they feel like if they don't, God will strike them down with leprosy or something. We all came to the conclusion that loving God and loving people should be the only reason we try to evangelize. If we are not loving people, we become salespeople who try to sell a Savior.
How come I had a great discussion with my friends about loving people and bringing them to Christ, and then turn around six hours later talk about how I hate two guys who might be going to Hell because I am too lazy and apathetic to show them Jesus? I have no clue, but I am thankful that God had a brick handy to wake me up from my stupidity.
2 comments:
Great thoughts man. I think that we get so wrapped up in ourselves sometimes that we forget there is a world in need of God. We also get used to a worldview and a way of life and forget that others live differently than us. By our actions we can show people Jesus.
I love you man. Evangelize while you can. They just banned it in my community back home...seriously
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