It's about Them

It's not about you.

Those are the first four words in The Purpose-Driven Life, a book with wonderful and horrible points, all made with the certainly of "The Bible says..." And like much of the material in the book, that statement is right and true, even if the methods used in supporting it are questionable. The author, Rick Warren, starts off by saying that it's not about you, it's about God.

I'd amend that statement. It's not about you, it's about them. The unsaved. The great unwashed. Pagans, sinners, whatever you want to call them. It's about them.

The Christian religion talks a lot about being saved. If you're washed in the blood of the Lamb of God (Jesus), you are saved. When you die, you're going someplace nice where you can revel in God's presence. And if you aren't saved, then you're not.

God is God, contant and unchanging. It's about Him, but He is what He is and we don't have the power to do anything about it. And if you believe in salvation and if you truly turn to God and accept His salvation, then you're set. Basically, you've made your decision and as long as you don't unmake it, you're off the gameboard, too.

That leaves everyone else. It's not about me; I'm taken care of. It's now about them. In my opinion, this is where a lot of Christians fall down. Tradition has it that Saint Francis said "Preach the Gospel at all time; if necessary, use words." Words are necessary. This blog and most communication is based on words. But words aren't the most effective way to communicate.

Actions are the most effective way to communicate.

And our actions, almost by definition, don't match our words. I know mine don't. I can be selfish and boorish and self-involved to the point of making people gag. But I can also be gentle and loving and touching. And God has given me the ability to move people to tears with my use of words. My children have opened up a pathway to both humanity and divinity that I never even imagined. In short, I'm human. I screw up just like you do. And I excel, too.

So my words will ring hollow. There are things about me that I will never tell you because I'm not proud of them. I fall short of what my words profess. But that's okay, because the ideas behind the words represent goals and ideals, without which, nothing progresses. And I'm trying to live up to those words.

So it's with my actions that I need to do my most effective speaking. It's with a hug to my children when I get after them too much for whatever they've done or haven't done. It's with the all-too-frequent, but heartfelt "I'm sorry" to my wife after go get angry about something stupid that I won't remember in three days.

Jesus has made a tremendous difference in my life. It's taken a long time (more than 13 years since I got serious about it), but I'm starting to become the gentle, patient person that I want to be. And the key to what I want to be is how I can touch others. Increasingly, after a maddening parade of missteps, that's starting to happen.

It's my job to make the effort; it's God's job to produce the fruit.