Friday, March 14, 2014

Friday | Why I Love the World & Why I Think That's Ok



I've never felt a huge personal burden for the lost. I've always been passionate about revival and further transformation of Christians and the church. To me, the unsaved were just a blank silhouette, like an empty facebook profile box where someone's not uploaded their photo yet. I figured that there were plenty of other people out pounding the pavement for Jesus, while my personal calling was for the church

Truth is, I didn't really know anybody who wasn't saved. My family is all saved, minus a few. All my friends were all second/third generation Christians. The only social settings or groups that I was involved with were either with church or various other Christian conservative influences. Everywhere I rubbed shoulders, I rubbed shoulders with a fellow believer in Christ.




Until seven months ago, when I accepted my job at Target. Every day since then, I have worked, sweated, talked, laughed, shared and just been friends with dozens of people who only know Jesus as a reason to swear. Suddenly that empty profile picture became the faces of my friends.

Of Yolanda. Of Miguel. Of Alex, Misty, Luis, Belen, Rose, Tom, Derek, Kayla, Stephen, Emilio, JM...the list of names go on. All of these people are my friends. My people. People I care about. People I've talked to, heard their stories, teased and joked with in the backroom at work. They have personalities, heartache, strengths, weaknesses and hurts. Some of them fall under the categories of best friends. Some I've even had small crushes on, haha. Some annoy me sometimes, some come to me with their grievances, some like to tease me because I'll tease back.


 I love my people. And the more I'm with them, the more I love each one and care so much about each one. And the more that happens, the more it cripples my heart that these precious friends aren't going where I'm going. That the way they're going is taking them to an eternity in hell. Suddenly, with the faces of my friends backdropped by the flames of eternal destruction, hell has become so much more real and eternity that much more forever.


And I cannot be silent about Jesus. Because my silence could cost them their lives. Oh no, I'm still terrible at it, it doesn't come naturally. Sometimes I just feel like the words that are coming out of my mouth don't make sense and I feel embarrassed because I must look so stupid. I still bypass those perfect opportunities because I talk myself out of it. But those opportunities, by God's grace, are becoming less. I'm just a tiny baby witness, who's big smile and constant positive attitude at work is more well-known than her faith. But that's changing. Because I can't let my friends, my work family, not know about Jesus any longer.

I'm so different than the girl who didn't care about the world overly much. Because I wasn't out in it. But now? I'm out in the world and I love the people in it.


The worst thing that we can do, as teens, as parents, as singles, as Christians...is to stay in our church circles where it's safe, surrounded by the like-minded and protected from the world's temptations by the cushion of our fellow believers...because then we will never personally know the people who need Jesus.

Because...

It's when we know them personally that we love them. And when we love them, then there's no way we could ever be silent about Jesus.

7 comments:

  1. YES. This was me when I started college.

    And honestly? The same thing happened when I started my theatre class, and suddenly had a huge empathy/burden for gays. Like you said, I didn't know anyone who was, and they were kinda a big faceless sea of GAYS. Then I met them, did improv and talked about the weather and homework and Doctor Who and realized that...as "basic" as this sounds, they were people with dreams and fears just like me. And I just became *so* burdened because they need the Lord just as much as anyone else does, but the church struggles with separating the sin and the sinner. Anyway, total ramble, but *really* clicked with what you were saying. As usual. :)

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  2. Amen! God bless you for sharing Jesus at your workplace!

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  3. "The worst thing that we can do, as teens, as parents, as singles, as Christians...is to stay in our church circles where it's safe, surrounded by the like-minded and protected from the world's temptations by the cushion of our fellow believers...because then we will never personally know the people who need Jesus. Because...It's when we know them personally that we love them. And when we love them, then there's no way we could ever be silent about Jesus." So true!! Thanks for sharing this, Kellie!

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  4. Challenging post, Kel. I'm really proud of you and am inspired to get out in the world more, too.

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  5. Wonderful! And I know how you feel....the people I am in contact with are only...church people and fellow Christians. I do have many lost relatives but they lives miles...and even countries away. There is only so much one we can do other than pray and be a witness on FB...lol. But it is so wonderful to hear that you are willing to share the gospel!

    Iris♥

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  6. Amen, Kellie! Thanks for sharing! It seemed like I was reading myself. :) Same change in thinking happened to me when I worked at Target. I'm so thankful the Lord opened my eyes!

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  7. "The worst thing that we can do, as teens, as parents, as singles, as Christians...is to stay in our church circles where it's safe, surrounded by the like-minded and protected from the world's temptations by the cushion of our fellow believers...because then we will never personally know the people who need Jesus."

    I can totally relate as well. I didn't really start getting out of my church bubble and meeting non-believers until I started do missions and moving to places that are totally different than my home. Now that I'm back home, it is so easy to slip back into that church bubble. Especially being in the Bible Belt where everyone goes to a church. But, the truth is, not everyone goes to church. Not everyone knows who Jesus is, besides a swear word in their vocabulary.

    Great post! Encouraging!

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