He walked through the doors for the first time not knowing where to turn. Only finding himself with a strong desire to go to church. He had tried things of the world; a crazy lifestyle, parties, girls, drugs, sex and alcohol. Hopeless and unfulfilled turning to new territory with an open heart looking for true life. He ventured through the doors broken in hopes to find something different than what the world had to offer. On the outside he was just a normal guy who didn’t draw attention with his appearance and because of his introverted personality mixed with his brokenness he walked into this church building and sat down alone hoping somebody would just ask him how he was doing. He was ready to open up and spill his heart with humility to the first person that showed that they cared to hear his story. But like a ghost not being seen by humans, he also came in walking through crowds of people unacknowledged as if he didn’t exist.
The service was about ready to begin and people started to take their seats as if they each were assigned a spot in church. Their bibles laid out so that nobody take the seat of where each one would be planted for the remaining hour. The rows begin to fill as the music plays and people stood to lift their hands, close their eyes and worship God. Confused about what is going on, he began to feel like he is in the wrong place. That this church thing was a bad idea, but because the man was there he wanted to wait it out to see what would happen.
As the music faded, the leader begins to pray. “Jesus we thank you for what you are doing here tonight. May we be a generation that follows in your ways, does as you do and directs our footsteps. Amen” The worship leader dismisses them to greet each other and groups begin to form talking about their week and what they did. This man still broken waiting for somebody just to say hello, sits down in the chair waiting for this time to be over so that he can hear what the pastor has to say.
One persons’ head began to turn and noticed his unfamiliar face and thought “Look at that guy, I can’t believe he is sitting in my seat. I hope he moves to the next seat so I can sit next to my friend.” And then turn his head back to his friend to converse about what they were going to do after service.
This man started to feel really uncomfortable thinking that this was a bad idea; got up and walked out. Unacknowledged, uncared for and broken the doors to the kingdom of God were shut in his face and the place that he should have experienced the love of Christ, he was shunned and sent back into this hopeless world looking for a simple out. He was looking for hope; something to clean him of his rotten heart and history. Where would he Go? What would he do? To him, church was no longer an option because they were just like the world; judgmental, selfish, and uncaring.
I have experienced this unacceptance first hand and don’t wish this on anybody. We are called to be a light in this dark world and bring hope to the hopeless. Everybody has a story, and what if we played a part in bringing somebody into a life of Joy? If we step outside of our comfort zone and see that there are people that need Jesus, we CAN play a part in giving them an abundant life in Christ. Let’s all rise up, pray for those opportunities and love people into the kingdom of God.
