The Dancing, Half Naked Man

There is a man I pass everyday on my way to work.  He is peculiar.  He is a spectacle.  This guy is in his late forties and constantly walks around his trailer park neighborhood along side the highway.  He wears huge headphones and bike shorts.  That is usually it.

It is not uncommon to drive by and see him dancing, raising his arms to the sky, or shadow boxing.  I have found him along side the road at 4:00am and as late as 12:30am.  

At first, his antics were amusing, causing me to always look for him.  Eventually, he became more of a spectacle to me.  He didn't realize it, but he was made subject to all kinds of internal ridicule on my part.  A simple shaking of the head, pretty much sums up this man's relationship with onlookers, including myself.

When I look at Aaron, I see my oldest now at 12 years old, but I cannot help but still see little two year old Aaron, snotty nosed, innocent, and so loving.  He is still very loving, but all you parents know what I am talking about.  You still see the innocent little kid inside the much larger, older child now.  And it causes you to love them so much more.  It allows you a glimpse of who this child can truly be and who this child truly is at heart.  

And so it occurred to me that maybe Christ in his compassion pursues in this very same manner.  Yes he sees the person that stands in defiance now, but he knows who that person was as a child.  He sees the hurt, the missing parents, missing leadership, absent dad, abusive mom, non existent medical care, the rejection, the hurt, the loneliness, the depravity...and he has compassion.  He has compassion.  He has compassion.  He pursues.  

Not that there was ever any good in us to begin with, because there wasn't, but that he has always seen what we would become if only we would surrender our lives to him.  

If we claim to have the heart of Christ, if we claim to "have Christ in us", if we claim to live Galatians 2:20, if we claim to be Christians, then why do we look at the here and now and how it affects, us.

Selfless means absent of my own regard.  Why don't we step out and help. 

The world rejects.  The world condemns, the world gossips, the world worries about what is fair.  The world worries about self.  So who do you most look like? Now take out the self righteousness and look again.  Who do you really look like?

So today, before your instinctual reaction to look away...look to.  Before you reject, look to help.  Get uncomfortable with it.  I dare you.  Try it and see what happens.  Start conversation, give out of your day, give out of your bank account, give out of compassion.  Have compassion on people.  They only have a few days left anyway and then an eternity somewhere awaits them.   Become a part of their day.  Let Christ be that glimmer of hope to them today.  They may be hopeless and worthless.  That's perfect!  He wants to help them too!  But have compassion.  Active compassion.  Let Christ work through your compassion and watch the Holy Spirit draw others through your compassion.

“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”

Jim Elliot

Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. 

Isaiah 1:17