When Sh*t Gets Real

     What do you do when you want to scream at the top of your lungs and break a bunch of stuff?  There’s a tv and a golf club within arm’s reach.  Smash.  That would be satisfying.   Amidst the den and chatter of personal revelations shared publicly, everyone has a voice, everyone has something to say, everyone wants to be heard.  The mountain is shaking.  Can you feel it? (Heb 12:27)    

     What you have to say is important.  Know that.  You don’t have to prove it to anyone.  You are perfectly loved and accepted whether you utter another word.  You don’t have to prove it to anyone.

     Sometimes when people get too close to me I want to punch them in the face.  Glory to God I don’t actually do it.  Sometimes Christians talk too much about what God is and is not, instead of just walking it out and demonstrating His love (James 2:15-17).   Most of the time I have more fun hanging out with the drug dealers on my block than I do with most of the people I meet at church.  I can’t explain why.  They have good stories.  They’ve seen some stuff.  And surprisingly, though maybe not, they know God.  They know the power of God.  They have a healthy fear of God for the most part, it’s just they haven’t pledged their lives to Him.  It’s funny.  I would just walk through my apartment complex or walk down the street absolutely schnockered on the Holy Ghost and I would either get asked, “hey man do you have some weed?” or “hey man, do you want to buy some weed?”  I usually tell them that I have weed that they know not of.  The fiends immediately want me to share, which I do.  When I tell them that my “drug” is really the presence of God and they have it living inside them in unlimited supply.  This normally draws out a surprised look or two, but whether they believe what I’m saying or not, they can’t argue with the proof that I am way higher than they are and they want it.  So we’ll end up praying together, which is really more of a conversation in getting to know one another, and usually I won’t see this person/people again.  I have to trust Holy Spirit to lead them into truth.  I am an ambassador to my Father’s kingdom.  I can point people in the direction, tell them about my Father and His kingdom, I can even demonstrate to a degree what that kingdom is like, but...I cannot make the choice for them.  This goes for anyone at anytime.  No amount of revelating, arguing or hitting anyone over the head with my bible is going to make the steps for them.  The choice is theirs, the choice is yours.  This is the foundation of unconditional love.

     The dealers and mafiosos are usually at first are a bit more standoffish, simply because if they know you’re pushing another product, you could very well put them out of business.  There are also rules pertaining to territories.  If another dealer thinks I’m dealing on his territory things could escalate into a very dangerous situation very quickly.  When I tell them it’s just Jesus, they won’t try to come against it.  More often than not, a lot of these guys were raised in church, but their gifts were prostituted out for the “ministry” and so religicized that they got burned out, or they saw Christ and His people as nothing but a bunch of ritualistic hypocrites.  When the world seems to be crumbling down around you, going to a service one day a week and listening to some man in a suit talk down at you doesn’t seem to make a much sense.  In fact, it had no practical application to the world in which most of us live and find ourselves every day.  I know this, Jesus is not afraid of their crap and the dark world they choose, thus He is not afraid to meet them exactly where they are at, right there on the street in the middle of the chaos with blood and guts strewn everywhere.  Ultimately, people want something real, and raw.  People need a savior and they know it.  But a savior that can’t identify with their pain and darkness is just another false idol.

     Real talk:  Most of these guys, if I walk up to them and say, “You have a tremendous anointing on your life, brother.  Receive the kingdom of promise,” they will probably laugh at me, or punch me in the face.  The language is laced so much with the religiosity that probably turned them off in the first place, that the odds of them HEARING anything I said are slim and none.   If God told me to say that, then I would say it.  What I’m attempting to draw out is that most of the time, this is how we approach evangelism and we wonder why our success is so minimal.  Usually 90% of the time or more, when I’m talking to one of these guys it goes more like this: “I’m high as sh*t on Jesus, dude.  No lie.  Jesus is the baddest motherf*cker in the universe.  He’s the original king of f*ckin’ sh*t up.”  In our normal religious box, most would think that I have just blasphemed the Holy Spirit and stepped outside of the purity, letting my untamed tongue slip the bit.  But I assure you, Jesus is not offended by this speech.  He invented language and is sovereign over all communication, I’m pretty sure He can use it any way he wants.  Although I could be a preacher of some big church and well-respected as a matter of general public opinion, if the Holy Spirit has me cussing like a sailor just to reach one dealer or crackhead on my block, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.  He is not afraid to meet anyone exactly where they are at.  Try to put the lion in a cage and see what happens.

     So...What do we do when sh*t gets real?  Do we offer a word of prayer?  Do we post a bunch of status updates on facebook?  Do we hide behind a sea of words because we know our joy is supposed to be the measure of our inheritance?  Can we not be honest about how we feel?  Joy is a fruit of the spirit, yes.  But if I’m not feeling joyful I not going to muster up some fake joy for fear of the judgements of men.  Let’s get real.  Sometimes things just suck and the first step in breaking the chains is being honest and saying, “Lord, this situation sucks and I have absolutely no idea what to do about it.”  Sometimes despite our best efforts, we take things personally even though we shouldn’t.  For instance, when a neighbour of ours got murdered 50 feet away from our front door, I took it personally.  I was pissed off.  I was mad at God for letting it happen.  He didn’t have a problem with it.  In fact, what He told me was, “Thank you for being honest with me, son.”

     One Sunday morning I was at church worshipping, when I received some of the worst news I’ve ever received in my life.  I stepped outside, cried for a while in the parking lot, composed myself and went back into the sanctuary, but the tears started to well up again, worse this time, and I just had to let it go.  All I wanted to do was cry and talk to my wife.  So I’m sitting there, crying, really just wanting to be by myself, when some charismatic lady comes up to me and obnoxiously puts her hand on my head and starts praying in tongues.  Bless her heart, but that was the last thing I needed at that moment.  She had no idea why I was crying or what was going on.  I needed a good cry and someone to listen.  I didn’t need any prayer or a word of knowledge, or a prophecy.  In that moment I needed someone to be real and meet me where I was at. 

     When sh*t gets real sometimes there aren’t any answers.  All we can do is let the other person know that we are there.  Ask them what they need instead of using a spiritual gift as a cop out.  When sh*t gets real, more often than not, people need to talk in order process whatever it is that has happened.  The greatest gift we can give them is by being there with them through it and listening.  We don’t always need a word of advice or a list of suggestions or should and should not do’s.  Sometimes we just need to be quiet and listen to what our brothers and sisters are going through.  

     How do we respond when the mountain is shaking?