learning the hard way

Me. That is a scary topic to talk about. A friend always says, “If you want to talk bad about me, come ask me and I will give you a bigger list of my faults than you have now.” No one knows more about us than ourselves. No one knows my faults better than me.

I was reading about a church planting movement in China where hundreds of thousands of people have become followers of Christ in the past 10 years. My numbers are not “guesstimates” but very, very reliable. In these movements, lives are being changed because people are pouring their lives into other people. These people are seeing the importance of connecting with others in a real and intimate way. And when they connect, they begin to share their lives with others and the life-changing power of Jesus is passed from generation of followers to another.

This type of movement happens when people reorganize their priorities and begin to focus their time and energy, not on themselves, but on others. It happens when we build intentional relationships with the purpose of sharing Christ in them. These relationships are not just for the purpose of “converting” someone to follow Jesus, but because Jesus commanded us to care for others. Jesus says that the most important of the commandments are to, “Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And to love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words we should have a heart to care and love for others and because we do this, people’s lives will be changed.
So back to my faults… I am learning how selfish I am. I am learning that I do not care about people as I should. I am learning that this is the future of an amazing movement, because it is the way we were created... for relationships. I am learning how hard this is... and how selfish I am with my time and my energies. It’s so easy to get caught up with the stuff of ministry and not the people that the ministry is all about. I am asking God to change my heart into a heart that cares and beats for others. This process is humbling... but good. Maybe one day. But until then I am striving toward the goal.