People. They’re Everywhere.

When you think about your city, what comes to mind? I don’t mean your favorite movie theater, the park you run at, or the road construction that’s making your commute even longer. I’m talking about the people. What do you think about the people in your city? How do you interact with them?

If you’re like me, most of your interaction comes in the form of traffic, restaurants and the grocery store. Doesn’t it drive you out of your mind to already be in a hurry and be stuck at a red light, only to have the guy in front of you just sit there when the light turns green?! How do you feel when you’re at El Carrizo and 6,194 people are ahead of you waiting for a table, and you are starving? Does it bother you at Winn Dixie when all you have to buy is a box of spaghetti, but there are only 2 lanes open, and the one you’re in has a mom in line with 4 separate WIC transactions? When you finally get to your car, are you sick of humanity and wish that just for one day, things could go smoothly for you when you’re dealing with people?

Yeah. I’ve been there.

Maybe it’s not what we think…

But what happens when you begin to look at people differently? What if we take two minutes and just look, really look at someone through the eyes of Jesus? Would they look differently to us? That guy at the red light…what if his lovely wife of 38 years just received a cancer diagnosis yesterday, and it’s really all he can focus on? And the crowd at El Carrizo…what if it were family and friends there to celebrate a couple’s recent adoption after waiting 12 years to be able to start a family? Or that lady at the store… maybe she’s a tired widowed mom of four who is trying to raise her children while working, and she’s just so thankful that at least she has a little extra way to feed her family.

Does that change how you feel about these people? Would you suddenly have just a little more patience?

Okay, but what if it’s not that either?

What if none of that is true? What if the guy at the light is just a jerk that’s texting and not paying any attention, and quite frankly doesn’t care if you’re running late? What if the crowd at the restaurant is loud, rowdy, and vulgar and clearly not “your sort of people” because they are saying things you would never think to say, and acting in ways your mama would still ground you for? What if the woman at the store has a fifth transaction she’s paying cash for that has steaks, bottles of wine, a cake and cigarettes?

Are you screaming inside? Yeah, I get that.

But that wasn’t what He asked…

The thing is, Jesus didn’t ask us to love on and have patience with only the sweet and lovable. He didn’t ask us to share the Gospel with only those people who are behaving like us. (Us. You know…the good ones. Right. How quickly we can forget the muck and mire that Jesus brought us out of.) He said to go to the whole world and share the Gospel with everyone. Everyone.

Because no matter what we perceive someone’s situation or attitude to be, we have been asked by our King to love them and share Him with them. And your city, my city, is a great place to start. And the truth is, for me, I haven’t really done much of that. I’m the person that gets irritated in lines and traffic. I forget that people aren’t annoyances. They are created and loved by God. I forget that I’m the body of Christ. I get selfish and don’t bother looking at people the way Jesus does.

Take a second look…

This morning, while I was at a red light, I glanced over at the woman in the car next to me. She was dressed in Army fatigues, and there was a car seat in the back. She looked neither particularly happy nor in much of a hurry. Maybe she’d just dropped her child at daycare and was heading to work. I wondered if she knew Jesus. Does she have a church home? Does she need anything? Could I help her in some way? Could my church be of help to her? I suddenly desperately wanted her to know that Jesus is crazy about her and wants her to know Him. In fact, she is the reason I felt compelled to write any of this. Now, I obviously can’t pull someone over in traffic and ask any of that. But what about the next time I’m waiting at Pep Boys and there’s another woman there waiting for her car as well? Should I keep scrolling through my phone, or instead start a conversation with her?

The truth is, I don’t seek out opportunities to share Jesus. I tell myself that it’s not my fault. After all, I work in a church. Besides work, I’m here a couple extra times a week for church activities. Most of my friends I’ve met through Calvary one way or another. I don’t belong to any other clubs or organizations. I don’t have children, so I don’t meet people through kids’ activities. I’m an introvert, so I don’t find myself in big group activities. I don’t follow sports, so you’re not going to find me at the football field. That’s just my life; that’s just how it is. I’m not around non-believers. So there. I’m off the hook, right?

Not so much.

People need matter to me…

I realized this morning that I have to change. The woman at the red light needs to matter to me. My waitress yesterday needs to matter to me. The guy that takes care of my dog at doggy daycare needs to matter to me. They need to matter to me because they matter to Jesus. My city has to matter to me. It can’t just be the place I happen to live. My city is people. Lots and lots of people. And so many of them don’t know Jesus. So many of them are in pain, have real needs, and deep hurts. We say at Calvary that we seek to share the Gospel through meeting those needs and helping to heal those hurts. We can’t do that—I can’t do that with my hand in my pocket and my face looking down at my phone, ignoring everyone around me because “I’ve had a hard day, thankyouverymuch.” I’m a homebody, and that’s okay, but to make a difference in this city, I have to leave my house…even if it’s just to go next door to my neighbor. Yes, I spend a lot of time on the Calvary campus, but I have to leave this property and find ways to purposely interact with people.

But I’m an introvert!!!

Starting conversations can be hard for an introvert. Talking is easy to me once I get started (Pastor Alan Smith says I have “the gift of gab”), but getting into that conversation with a stranger is difficult. Fortunately, Calvary has provided us with conversation starters already. Every week in our Worship Guide, there are discussion questions that make you think about what we’ve learned that Sunday. They are meant to help us speak to others and ask meaningful questions. As a matter of fact, one of this week’s questions happens to be, “What would you say is the #1 need in your city?” What if while I waited in Barnes and Noble for my husband to get off work, I got into a conversation with someone and asked them that question. Do you think I’d learn a little about my city from their perspective? Maybe. And maybe I’d get a chance to share Jesus with them and invite them to church.

Another great resource is our Conversation Starter Cards. Don’t know what that is? That’s okay; they’re new. In the Lobby just outside the church office and on the tables in the Welcome Center, you can find these business card sized invitations. On one side is some simple church information that you can use to tell someone about Calvary. But the other side is the attention-getter with meaningful questions and statements. There are cards for moms, dads, singles, seniors, skeptics, thank you cards for service people and more. Take several of each and keep them with you for those moments that you interact with people—whether on purpose or accidentally.

Let’s start talking…

So, will you consider starting conversations? Will you pray for me as I learn to step outside my comfort zone and start conversations? Because, folks, King Jesus is everything. He. Is. Everything. And keeping Him to ourselves is simply not okay. So let’s get to talking, shall we?  Let’s show people that they matter to us because they matter to Jesus.