Sharing The Good News...

So, for those of you who know me, know that two summers ago I traveled to Mozambique, Africa for three months. It was there that my life was dramatically changed. Since then, it has been quite a struggle to maintain all that I learned that summer in my everyday life here in Knoxville, TN. I know many of you feel the same way. We go on life changing, life impacting trips and come home and desire to apply all that we brought home with us into our lives here, but find it a wee bit hard. So, tonight I am cleaning out a drawer in my room where I found my homework journal from Africa. In this journal I was given the assignment to write a paper on what it looks like to 'share the good news to the poor.' I'm going to type out what I wrote. As I reread this one page paper I sat in my floor and wept. I pray that as you read it your heart is moved as well.

Sharing the good news with the poor looks like... leaving all of our comforts at home and going to their huts, cardboard boxes, shacks, mansions, or wherever and being vulnerable with them. Just as Jesus was real with the woman at the well, so should we be completely transparent with the poor. Not just the physically poor, but those that have the poorest spirits and souls too. I truly believe that the body of Christ looks like all of us sitting around in the dirt and holding hands with the joy of the Lord illuminating out of our smiles, our laughs, our tears, our stories, our pain, our prayers, our words, our hugs...No where in that do I think money or nice possessions helps us illuminate His face brighter. We need to break the lies that have been surrounding us saying we are more dignified because of the money in our bank accounts or the nice cars we drive. Jesus sat at the table with the rich, the drunk, the poor , the selfish, the wounded, the thieves and He told stories with them and laughed with them. He allowed HIS heart to connect with theirs. Why do we not do the same? What is keeping our hearts from connecting with the poor? I pray that Jesus strips me of any pride I have that is telling me I deserve the chair instead of the dirt. Sharing the good news with the poor is loving on them as you would your best friend. Sharing the good news with the poor is laughing and telling stories with them as you would your family. Sharing the good news with the poor is coming to them with ONE thing to offer... JESUS!

"Ruin Me" by Jeff Johnson is the song of the night! The Lord used this song to speak so much truth into my heart my Sophomore year of college when I laid the man I loved more than life at His feet. He is using this same song tonight to speak new truth into my very being.