Hello from the…Inside?

My school was on Spring Break last week, which meant that I got to enjoy the comforts of home and busy myself with activities much different from the daily responsibilities of college life. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to join my mom in working with a local elementary after-school program. One of the things that God has given me a deep love for is working with children, so I jump at almost any chance to invest in them, even if only very briefly. I believe God can work through the most minute interactions, and I’ve seen evidence for this in my own life, so I try to make myself available and willing to be used by God at any time. When my mom gave me the chance to join her at the school, I thought I might rather relax at home, but I’m so glad I got the opportunity to tag along.

Most of the afternoon seemed pretty routine for a program like this: snack, lesson, song, story, song, memory verse practice…pretty ordinary, all-in-all. But God still found a way to speak to me through these average moments. During the lesson, the kids sat in a circle in front of the speaker on the gym floor. The volunteers sat in chairs slightly outside the circle so they could keep an eye on things, but because I was visiting and significantly younger than the other volunteers, I decided to join the group on the floor. Sitting on the edge, I quickly noticed three young girls sitting close enough to hear the teacher but outside the cluster of kids, and I motioned for them to come closer. I wasn’t sure why they were isolating themselves, but my first instinct was to think that they wanted to talk or play instead of paying attention.

How humbling for me to realize the error in my judgment when one of them responded immediately to my beckoning and another soon followed! Not only did they join the circle, but they sat right by my side and smiled shyly up at me before becoming brave enough to loop their arms through mine. Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, though, the remaining girl stayed away despite the invitations her friends and I extended for her to join us. I thought it shouldn’t have been too hard for her, as we were on the very edge of the group and not too far from her, but the space between us seemed an insurmountable obstacle for her as she watched us cautiously from a “safe” distance. As I sat trying to help the two younger girls stay focused on the lesson and wishing the last girl would join us so I wouldn’t have to worry about her, I realized that my situation was very similar to one we often put ourselves in as Christians.

We often remain inside the safety of our comfort zones to witness, and God can certainly use us wherever we are, but there are still those who can’t be reached from where we sit in our pews. In order to express the love of God and Jesus’ attitude of inclusion that led Him to extend love to Gentiles and forgiveness to prostitutes, we have to be willing to pack up and go out into the world, just like we were called. There is a time to go out and call in the lost:

“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.'” (Luke 14:23, NIV)

but there is also a time to meet them where they are to share God’s love:

“He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.'” (Mark 16:15)

“To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22)

To bring the girl who stayed outside the group into fellowship, I perhaps should have first taken it to her. Of course, with two of the three girls, inviting them to join me worked; I’m not at all speaking against inviting people to church or events where they can learn more about God. I do think it’s important, though, to be equipped, prepared, and willing to bring the Gospel ourselves when we have the opportunity. We can’t saddle our pastors with all the responsibility of sharing the Gospel. Colossians 4:5 encourages believers to “conduct [themselves] with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.” And we can’t expect those who are lost to go outside their comfort zones to find out about a God they aren’t even sure exists; it should be so much easier for us to step outside our comfort zones, because we’re secure and confident in our faith and the truth we share. The situations God has prepared for us won’t always be conducive to the distribution of tracts or an invitation to church. Some situations can only be met with a word of prayer or an immediate discussion, otherwise the opportunity will pass.

Still, I’m sure we can all relate to the frustration Paul expresses in Romans 7:15, that

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Some things, like sharing the Gospel on our own, we know we’re supposed to do–we just struggle with putting that knowledge into action. We all have similar struggles, I’m sure. But I want to challenge you (and myself, too) to step outside your comfort zone to share the incredible love God constantly pours into us. Go beyond expectations and share where you wouldn’t normally think to bring such a discussion to the table. People aren’t always waiting “on the outside” with bad attitudes or minds already made up like we sometimes assume; maybe they just haven’t felt welcomed yet but deeply hunger for the chance to scoot into the group, settle in, and learn about a God who wants them to engage in relationship with Him. And sometimes they’re waiting to see evidence that there is a God Who cares deeply about them, specifically, because so far it seems like He doesn’t really care what happens to them, if He’s even real at all. As the body of Christ, we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus reaching out to bring love to the hurting and lost. And in our efforts to live like Christ, we must remind ourselves that He came to our world to save us; He didn’t try to take care of everything from where He sat, but He became human so that He could reach, save, understand, and love the lost. Can’t we, following this model, go out into a world, even to unfamiliar places, to share His love?