Reaching Out

                 How often do you find yourself sitting in a room full of people, maybe at church, or youth group, or fellowship with other believers, consumed in your thoughts?  Thoughts about where you’re headed next, thoughts about work tomorrow, and the laundry to be done when you get home; your thoughts about your failures that certainly no one else struggles with, your shortcomings in life.  Thoughts about the things that make you inadequate compared to the person sitting to your right or your left.  Have you ever stopped in the midst of this to think about the very thoughts or struggles of that person sitting next to you?  No?  Let me ask to challenge you, to beg you, to think on some things.  To chew on some words that God has laid on my heart.

                Maybe sitting right next to you is someone you barely know, or a friend of years, have you every stopped to wonder what they’re thinking?  Perhaps stuck in their own feelings of inadequacy.  Maybe they’re screaming on the inside for someone to reach out.  They need someone to put their own inhibitions aside and reach out to them; ask the tough questions.  Not just, “hey how are things going?”  But questions like, “what are you struggling with? What’s going on in your heart?”  Don’t stop there.  “Well they just like to keep to themselves; I don’t wanna push their comfort level with me.”  This is your friend, your loved one you’re talking about.  You are there to do that exact thing, to push their comfort level, to challenge them in their endeavors, their struggles, their relationships, and their life as a whole.  It’s high time we as friends, we as Christians, start asking the difficult questions.  Why?  Because they’re worth it.  Because your friend, your loved one needs you to do this for them.

                Looking through passages in the bible and Christ’s life on this earth as a whole, he was here not just to spread the message, not just to be the Savior we all need and crave, but to challenge those around him, He challenged his disciples, the people closest to him, to not settle for merely believing, but doing.  Doing those things that ask you to step out on faith alone; asking those questions that make you squirm in your seat.  For the betterment of the person you love so dearly.  It may even be painful to ask the questions, to feel the awkward silence, to look into their eyes while their brain scrambles for the truth, while they debate whether you can handle the truth, while they question how much of themselves they want to expose. 

                It’s not going to be comfortable.  It’s not going to be easy.  These are the things which Christ has called us to do, to stand next to your brother or sister in Him and push them, encourage them, catch them when they fall, point them back to Him.  You may end quite shocked that you have the same struggles, the same shortcomings and failures, the same inadequacies, but fear not, you have the same Father.   The Father, who sees all, knows all, loves all, and forgives all.  You do not have to stay stuck in these same fears and sins with your friend.  You can both overcome.  He is there, waiting for your prayers, your hearts, your hands lifted in praise.

  My friends, this is something worth doing, something your loved one will soon thank you for.  Something Christ will rejoice over.