[This is an adaptation of my monthly article for the July, 2008 newsletter of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio.]
Has anything like this happened to you?
Sunday morning worship went well on June 29. I preached on the Gospel lesson, Matthew 10:40-42, and challenged the congregation and myself to see Jesus in the people around us and to extend Christian hospitality to them, including strangers.
To tell you the truth, I was stoked to meet my own challenge by intentionally greeting everyone with whom I came in contact.
After youth group ended that night, my wife Ann and I took a walk. Logan is a friendly place and people are usually generous with their hellos. Often, the walks that Ann, our son Phil, and I take around town get “interrupted,” when casual greetings turn into long conversations with friendly strangers.
But not this night. Instead, in spite of my new inspiration, almost every person to whom I said, “Hi,” or “Good evening,” or “How ya doin’?” met me with a vacant stare and silence.
The guy in front of his house just looked at me when I said hello. So did the teen heading for his car, the kid who passed us on his bike, and the woman walking her dog.
The next morning, as I thought about it, I couldn’t help smiling. Here’s why:
I have found that the very minute you understand God’s will for some aspect of your life and you try to follow God’s will, the devil, the world, and our sinful selves will get in your way.
The devil especially likes discouraging us from living life God’s way. He loves to snuff out the God-pleasing habits we’ve decided to adopt at the very moments we make our decisions.
The habits we’ve decided to take on could be anything from worshiping every Sunday to attending an evening Bible study, from giving more to the local food bank to spending time reading the Bible and praying each day. Or, it could be, as it was in my case, to be more deliberate in extending the hospitality of God to others.
The devil just loves to prevent us from keeping our “holy resolves.” When we Christians get discouraged about the daily business of being Christians, it makes the devil’s work easy.
The Bible isn’t exaggerating when it says, “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
The Bible states simply, “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil…” (Ephesians 6:12).
The minute you decide to do things God’s way is the minute that the devil will try to keep you from fulfilling your resolve. Take his obstructions as proof that you’re doing the right thing.
Don’t let the devil get his way. Pray simply, “Lord Jesus, Your will be done” and keep following Christ…even when the neighbors aren’t saying, “Hello.”
1 comment:
As a matter of fact, something kind of like that did happen to me.
I'm always pretty free with my greetings. I try to make eye contact with the people I pass in the hallways at work, on the street, etcetera. The people at my work are not very fond of saying hello in the hallways, so one week I decided that, instead of waiting for eye contact, I would call out 'Hello!' to everyone I passed in the hall. Everyone acknowledged me. Some were grudging, others were jovial.
I did this for awhile, and--I have to admit--was a little aggressive about it, like I was challenging these people to acknowledge a stranger in the hall.
I found out later that a lady in another department had begun rerouting her regular path to lunch, so she didn't have to run into me. A guy I worked with had mentioned me in conversation, and she was like, 'oh, the guy who says hello to everyone?' and then told him what she had done in order to avoid me.
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