April 19th, 2016

     I went to facilitate a Discovery Bible Study with one my friends last Wednesday. We’ve been reading through Mark and I love it. As you may know, one of the primary focuses of a DBS is the question of how we apply or put scripture into practice. Recently, we finished the story of the widow’s offering and my friend said that he needs to aim to give out of love; he said that giving from the heart to something that matters is more important than throwing money at strangers… I mostly agree. I love this study and I was excited to continue reading.     

      And yet, when I showed up to read with my friend I could tell something wasn’t right. I asked how he was doing and he said, “This has been an interesting week…”  I probed further and learned that a friend of my friend had recently murdered someone…  This came as quite a shock as you can imagine, and to make matters worse my friend had dined with this person guilty of murder the day after the incident not knowing anything.

       We sat in silence for bit. What a mess to dive into. We were supposed to read the next chapter, about the coming destruction of the temple, but this didn’t seem an appropriate time. Instead of reading we processed… I asked my friend how he was. I asked him how he was feeling towards himself and towards his newly convicted friend. We talked about sorrow, forgiveness, betrayal and grace… things Jesus knew quite well. It was messy, but it was conversation that needed to happen, and it was beautiful.

       Sometimes we feel like the only thing we can do as Christians to communicate the gospel is to preach at people, but if we don’t first listen, how will we know what they need to hear?  Please pray for my friend, and please be intentional this week about listening to yours…