Attitude
I heard an interesting story this morning that I hope you’ll think about.
The person was at the church when she noticed someone who was not recognized had pulled into the parking lot and sat there. (Chris - don’t try to check into this, please.) Maybe they were resting, maybe they were making a phone call, maybe they were checking something on the Internet and didn’t want to do it while driving. By the way, I read a study years ago that suggested that futzing on your phone while driving was a similar impairment to being intoxicated. So, if the person did need to check something on their phone, I’m happy they pulled into the church’s parking lot.
Regardless, the person who told me this story mentioned it made her uncomfortable to the point she thought about calling the police. I got it. It is a sinful and dangerous world out there and we all strive for a place where we feel safe.
But maybe, just maybe, this was God allowing us to share the good news with a person we don’t know? Wouldn’t it have been beautiful if, instead of thinking about calling the cops, the person had gone out and invited the person in the car into the church to ask about their faith needs? I get this really wasn’t a possibility for the person telling me the story and each of us needs to discern when it is safe enough to do this, but it still would have been a fantastic opportunity to share the good news.
Many people have figured out they can stand in front of a church (or bank or police station) and make people nervous enough that they come out in a very defensive posture. This happens so often that these people record the interactions and monetize it on the Internet. You can Google First Amendment Auditors if you want to see what I’m referring to.
How many of us have driven by the protestors from Westboro Baptist Church and wanted to roll down our window and yell at them? That is the trap they set to get this kind of response. Even worse, I’ve heard they copy your license plate and discover who you are to harass you. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to hold my wife back from yelling at them. It is the same with these people videotaping places like churches.
“If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near, yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’ if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them (for they are your people, and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace). Let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, giving ear to them whenever they call to you. For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.”” - 1 Kings 8:46-53 ESV
It’s only a matter of time before someone tries it with us. It is up to us whether we react like nonbelievers or decide to be light and salt, letting the Holy Spirit work on their faith.
