Get Your Voice Back (Part 2): Isolation is Our Enemy

Jesus was a friend of sinners. He ate with them, healed them, and insisted on invitations to their house parties. Even when they hid from Him, He sought them out. He challenged the cultural norms of His day.

 He broke down the barriers between people, and empowered the marginalized and the voiceless. 

As a Christian, my life is supposed to mirror His – but does it? Who do I hang out with? What walls am I breaking down? Am I like Jesus at all? 

Perhaps the greatest enemy of impact for followers of Jesus is that we have become isolated. 

We sit back in our churches lamenting the state of the world. We criticize the media, the government, and our school systems. Too often we are cold hearted, resorting to snarky bumper stickers and angry posts on social media. 

As things worsen, we retreat further. 

I understand, I struggle too. It’s easy to be afraid or angry, but we don’t have to be. The problems might seem overwhelming, but the solution is pretty simple – get to know people. 

We need to develop authentic relationships with those outside the Church, ask them questions, and really listen. 

If we open up our lives to the people around us, we will gain the authority to speak the love of Jesus into even the most difficult “hot topics.” 

In fact, knowing people will allow us to understand the issues they actually care about. We will no longer answer questions they aren’t asking. We will learn to communicate the Gospel using symbols and imagery that speak powerfully to them and their culture. 

Ultimately, you will never love what you do not know. This is a basic and inescapable truth. 

Motivated by God’s broken heart, we must step out of the safety of our Christian bubbles and into the messiness of the world around us. 

The secular world is not beyond the love of God. He is as active in bringing the lost to Himself as He always has been. Let’s open our lives to those around us. God will do the rest!