“JESUS, I WANT YOUR HEART, SHOW ME YOUR HEART.” -I cried out.
-To what in a gentle whisper he replied, “You saw it yesterday; it was with the guy you judged for the way he was dressed.
– When your friend pulled out that blunt out of desperation thinking it would calm him down, my heart was there.
-It was also with the older lady who struggled to open the entrance’s building door.
-My heart was at that conversation with your parents where everybody started raising their voice.
-My heart is always there, but you tend to miss it.
The guy you judged for the way he was dressed… he is living on food stamps. When you left your friend… his mind started telling him that he was right, that all he had left was marihuana and him, that at least for a second the drug would help him forget all his problems. The old lady who struggled to open the door… well, she has been overlooked by her family ever since she got sick. She has been longing to hear a kind word for years. That argument with your parents… Your dad just found out his paycheck is being cut by half staring next month. Mom and Dad are stressed out, and all they really needed was a hug from you.
But you want to know something? My heart was also there as you were getting ready to go to bed and started meditating on what a busy day you had. I was there when you remembered that to go to school people should be putting on better clothes. My heart was there when you started reconsidering your friendship with your friend because he might take you down the wrong path. When you remembered how lucky you were to sprint past that old lady to grab the door that was closing to not be late for your appointment, I was there too. And my heart was there when you got reassured by one of your friends saying you did right earlier with your parents. They should know you are not a kid anymore and they need to respect your boundaries. Finally, you turned off the light. You talked to me for a little bit, and as you were falling asleep you whispered, I love you. To which I replied, I love you more than you can ever imagine my child.
Jesus is more than a religion, more than a building, more than a type of music, more than any type of box we might think we can put him in. We spend our lives building walls to protect ourselves, without realizing that we end up building a prison. A prison that in some kind of way separates the sinners from the ones who follow Jesus (or at least that’s what we think). We avoid a certain kind of people because they might infect us with their worldliness. Dancing is bad because that’s from the world. To go to church, we need to dress a certain kind of way… otherwise we are disrespecting the house of the lord. Rules, rules, and more rules. Did we forget that through our own works we can’t get salvation? Did we forget that we are so imperfect and that’s why we need Jesus? How can we be the light of the world if we are surrounded by walls? No wonder why we think we are so holly but everybody else around us thinks otherwise… We are the only ones who see that “light” because the rest of the world, all they see is walls and darkness (darkness= absence of light). Are we really doing what Jesus commanded us? Last time I went to check the letter he wrote for us, in John 13:35 he said something along the lines of: “people will know you are my disciples if you love one another.” He also said, go and tell people of the good news so they can know me before I come back (Mark 16:15). How are we going to tell people about the light, when the clubs have better fame of taking care of the broken hearted than the “church”? How are we going to tell people about the light, if a rock shines more than we do? We are mistaken y’all! And I say we because I am a part of these group. Jesus washed Judas’ feet, THE GUY WHOM HE KNEW HOURS LATER WOULD BETRAY HIM. Jesus sat with tax collectors, the ones who were known as thieves. Jesus did all the things we are not doing… but we are still expecting a surreal intervention from his part to come and show us his face. His face is right here! And we are missing it right in front of our eyes. Since when church became a building instead of people? Right after Jesus left, the church was a bunch of people moved by love, people whose actions represented who they followed. With these I am not saying that we should give into the ways of the world… Jesus flipped tables when he got mad at the people making a market out of the temple, but COME ON!! It can’t be that the only spirit of Jesus we have within us is the one of flipping tables. We need to learn how to differentiate between religiousness and love. Because love is staying with that friend who pulled out a blunt and helping him realize that he can count on a friend instead of a drug. Religiousness on the other hand is leaving him because “Jesus doesn’t like people doing drugs”, or maybe “Jesus wouldn’t like for you to be with people who smokes.”
No matter what we do Jesus will always love us. Picture yourself in the scenario at the beginning of this writing, and think about the many times you’ve found yourself doing the same kinds of things. Nonetheless, as you are falling asleep with a smile on his face Jesus says, “child I love you more than you can ever imagine.” Today is a good day to start representing the one whose love is unmeasurable in the right way. Think of how much he has loved you and start reflecting that love on other people, and please remember! No matter how much we try, we will never be perfect and that’s why we need him.
If you have heard about Jesus, I’d love for you to keep diving into who he is. If you feel like you already know him fully, please unlearn everything you have put in you mind and give him the opportunity to surprise you every day. If you don’t know him, YOU NEED TO GET TO KNOW HIM! He will blow your mind and change every aspect of your life for the better. Don’t let religion, people, or a church steal from you the most important relationship you could have. The one with Jesus.