Do They Know How Much You Care?

There are really only a few web-sites that I frequent on a regular basis. Most of them have to do with study helps in my preparation of messages. There is one, however, that I am completely hooked on and visit each and every week: Post Secret. PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Select secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website, or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits. Its simply an opportunity that allows folks to write their most intimate secrets on a postcard. These 'secrets' have over 349 million viewers worldwide! I've been a welcomed voyeur of these secrets for over three years now. I own one of the books and I've even traveled to their events when they've been in driving distance (150 miles). I guess I'm a fan.

WARNING: Some of the content is extremely sexual in nature. Remember, these are people's inner-most secrets that they're revealing and, although there is 'Christian' stuff oftentimes represented on the site, it does not sell itself as a 'Christian' endeavor.

One might ask why a Christian, let alone a 'pastor', would visit such a site? The above sample is why? I feel as though this 'art project' allows me a glimpse into the hearts and minds of everyday, ordinary people. You see, you may not believe this, but the truth is; Some people aren't real truthful with others. Masks are something worn by countless folks... and not only on Halloween. The reason for these masks is because we all feel, to some extent, that if the truth were known about us... we'd be 'unlovely'.

Those in Christian leadership positions are especially aware of this, I believe. If I'm sitting on an airplane having a pleasant conversation with the person seated next to me, the question inevitably comes up: "What do you do for a living?" If and when I answer, "I'm a pastor", the conversation immediately shifts. Many times the person becomes very uneasy. They begin apologizing for any 'foul' language they might have used up to that point, and they often shut the communication down, or worse, they begin to talk in a phony-bologna Christian-ese (lots of 'praise the Lords' and 'amens').

God has called me to love Him first... and then love others. To do this, I think I have to 'know' them... I have to have some sort of 'relationship' with them... I have to 'earn the right' to perhaps speak into them and show Jesus to them. It's my belief that for far too long Christians, and especially preachers, have stood in our lofty places and preached the truth to folks, without truly knowing them at all... or knowing what their unique hurts, wounds, and life has been like up to that point. What if we could actually get a TRUTHFUL glimpse into their minds? Would that help?

Of course it would.

Loving others can seem pretty vague, however, God gives us an awesome example in exactly how to do this. You see, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, He brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us" (The Message Translation).

My translation: "God is totally compassionate and comforting to us, not so we'll be comfortbale, but so we'll go out and comfort others".

What is one of the main reasons we're drawn to God? Isn't it because He is a compassionate Father? But how well do we really understand compassion? We define God's compassion as guarding us from all trouble, but Scripture defines it as God's drawing near to us during trouble. If we respond to our trials by running toward God, we learn that He is always there and some how, some way supernaturally strengthens us and sustains us in difficult times.

Likewise, this verse says that the Lord is the "God of all healing counsel", Who "comes alongside us when we go through hard times". The original Greek wording here suggests that He comes alongside us to strengthen us, to be our advocate in the midst of trial. God does not shield us from all trouble, but draws near to us through trouble, so that we learn to depend more fully upon Him. Then we're able to comfort others with God's kind of comfort, not by trying to smooth over their pain, but by doing what God does: drawing alongside, staying close, and listening carefully.

How do we come alongside people who are hurting, wounded, bound up with all kinds of sin and struggles... if we don't take the time to truly listen and 'know' them?

Read the above postcard secret again. Isn't that what this priest did?

What if the old saying is true, "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care"?