“You can tell me the gospel in different ways. You can say ‘Trust in Jesus’ when I confide that I am nervous about my new high-school teaching job with a syllabus (including To Kill a Mockingbird) to stagger far more worthy candidates. Or you can know something about my psychology and just talk to me like Atticus: ‘Andrée, it’s not time to worry about it yet.’ And maybe I’ll keep postponing worry five minutes at a time, and trust Jesus one more day, and one more day.”
~Andrée Seu “Not time to worry yet,” World. August 25, 2007. p. 35.
She writes well, so the entire article is excellent. This quote however jumped out at me because of the way it speaks the gospel. Sometimes I think that sharing the gospel means laying out the salvation plan, and living the gospel means talking about Jesus all the time. I don’t do that so I think that I must not be sharing the gospel with anyone. But by saying the gospel this way, it lets me say the gospel in ways that lets other people discover what it means. When we lay out the plan of salvation (God is perfect and can’t stand sin; we are sinners and can’t come to God; God sent Jesus to be the connecting point between God and man; we need to accept Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins to be saved from God’s wrath) it is all there; everything is spelled out so clearly; there is nothing more you need to know. It is almost as if you say the right words and “all your wildest dreams will come true.”
But when the gospel can be stated not so clearly, and sometimes in the words of others, it lets the gospel become a discovery. I don’t have all the answers yet, just as I don’t understand this painting yet. But if I keep looking and studying, maybe someday I will understand just a bit more. In that way the gospel is like a piece of art, full of nuances and shades of meaning, ready to be studied, but also ready to be enjoyed as it is. Saying, “Maybe being perfect isn’t the only way to be good” is sharing the gospel. So is smiling at a cashier. Or reading a story to children.
This also means the gospel is all around us. If we train our eyes to pick it out, we can see the gospel of Jesus Christ in stories, history, art, people, relationships, science, math, and even current events. We don’t need rose colored lenses because God’s hand can be seen in all places. We just have to open our eyes.
I agree. I think b/c of some very unexpected "isolation" that I experienced in highschool my danger it to think, if I just had a lot of good friends I'd be happy. But you're right - it's Jesus that can satisfy us, though I don't think we'll be completely satisfied even by him until later.
ReplyDeletegood post. I've heard the gospel over and over all my life. but sometimes it takes studying and reading and listening and looking to finally have a little part of it sink in - like "God loves me". I know this, but it is still sinking in. somedays I believe it more than others. when I really believe it, it's the most incredible thing in the world.
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