The best Christian you will ever meet

Photo: unsplash.com

"Oh ye of little faith! Your lack of faith is the reason for your suffering!"

"Oh, sorry dear; just pray about it."

"I know you to be a woman of faith why are you feeling downcast?"

Bible verse after Bible verse after another Bible quote, is the way some of us quickly respond to the problems that our friends are facing, which is not bad in itself.

During my time in high school, I found more comfort with "unborn-again" friends; I was baffled to eventually realize that these non-Christians seemed  more accepting, more real_ they could actually take time to listen to your problems, instead of being consumed by trying to  recite for you the best Bible verses or quotes that befit your situation. The distance between fellow Christians and I continued to grow, and by university it was clear that I had serious issues being free and truly myself around a certain caliber of Christians.

In year three, I consulted with the hostel custodian why my roommate-to-be had taken too long to report. "Oh she reported earlier and went to the prayer mountain. You must be happy, you are both born again." she said.

I wasn't happy. I remember going back to my room and praying sincerely to God who never judges me, "God, you know I tend to work better with people who aren't really born again, you know how things tend to go with most of your sons and daughters. Little did I know that I was set up to meet the best Christian ever."

Let's call her Jolly for today. Very devoted, the prayer secretary of the entire university Christian Union, prays and speaks in tongues, lays hands on the sick and they heal, the Bible is on her fingertips, filled with the Holy Spirit, she was indeed a mature Christian (at least by most standards). I thought I was doomed into judgement, condemnation, forced fasting and guilt-tripping for the rest of that semester.

Jolly was the best Christian I had ever met. She attended crusades, laid hands on the sick and they were delivered, and she did a lot of other amazing Christian things.
There's a time when I fell sick. I definitely expected a deliverance service to be held in the room that entire week! But to my surprise, she didn't first lay hands on me to rebuke the demons of sickness and remind me that by Jesus' stripes I am healed, or that I got sick just because I had little faith. She instead showed deep concern about how terrible my headache was, whether I had eaten, or seen a doctor and what they'd said I was suffering from.

She was more concerned about me than she was about her gift of healing or how many bible verses she knew or how I might have contracted the sickness.

I felt that she loved me more than she loved to correct my faith-faults. She ministered to the heart before she ministered to the problem.

There's another time I remember, one of my friends and I had had a long day, and we found ourselves returning back to our hostel rooms a few minutes to midnight. We were both very hungry, very tired, and almost feeling sick. All the nearby shops were closed, so we couldn't buy anything, not even water, even if we were fainting. My friend wished the Holy Spirit could somehow come upon her roommate and convict her to cook some food, though she was very sure her roommate would not cook either way. 

"Well, Jolly (my roommate) would have cooked, but she is currently fasting for three straight days." I said. Painfully, we both agreed that we'd sleep hungry that night.

Yes, you guessed right (I hope you did?), Jolly had cooked! To me, having that meal after such a long day was more than a thousand words; she didn't need to tell me that Jesus cares, I felt it, I saw it; Jolly didn't have to cook, to spend her own money and time (especially that she herself wasn't even going to eat), just to cook for me. Jesus loves me and couldn't let me sleep hungry that night, at least not when I shared a room with His daughter. She didn't need to say that Jesus loves me, it was written all over that meal. He didn't need to send ravens to feed me or drop manna from heaven, He needed a Christian who cared.

The point for today's blog post is: in a world as broken as this, a good number of people out there don't need someone to force biblical facts down their throats, we don't need to hear about how much power you have as a Christian, we need to feel loved.

A doctor who simply treats a patient is completely different from another who cares about the patient he treats.

1 Corinthians 14:1 
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.

Before we get excited about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, let us not skip the first part of the sentence, "Follow the way of love and..." That means love comes first; it leads the way before that amazing gift.

1 Corinthians 13:1 
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

A healing minister once shared and said, "God told me that the people matter more than the miracle." Meaning that if you are to pray for someone to walk, for example, do it from a heart of love, not a heart of  "I have been given the gift to do this, let me show you how powerful the power of God is upon me!" There's nothing to prove, after all.

Jesus did not heal the sick because He could, He healed the sick because He cared for them, because He loved. 

Mark 6:34 
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

I like how James puts it:
"But a man may say, You have faith and I have works; let me see your faith without your works, and I will make my faith clear to you by my works." -James 2:18

If I am afraid that my parents are not finding school fees, before you rebuke my lack of faith, or the spirit of poverty, care enough to ask  how much the school fees balance is, you might be able to lend it or give it, or just make me feel understood by  merely listening to my worries.

What some non-Christians need from us is to see that someone cares, that there are still some genuinely good people, that we are not after counting the souls we have led to Christ, that we see them, we accept them and we care more about the person than imposing on them our faith-based ideologies.

I remember Pastor Benny Hinn sharing about his divorce and a few of the things that led to it. So often his wife came telling him issues or challenges she'd faced throughout the day. Being the intercessor he knew his wife was, he would always reply with, "Just pray about it."

She surely knew what to do, and most probably had already done so but she simply wanted the concerned, loving ears and attention of her husband. 

Bishop TD Jakes says, "Most times our wives know what to do, they simply just want us to listen and that grows your relationship more than you might think." (paraphrased)

Likewise, most Christians who might be going through a certain challenge know what to do, they most probably know those bible verses too, but they need some love, they need someone to care.  

Most challenges hurt, even though you know the solution. If you are beaten, you feel the pain, mindless of whether you know the solution or not, and you so often need someone who not only cares about the solution but also about addressing the hurt, checking to see if you have gotten some wounds that might leave you with a permanent scar, figuratively speaking.

Before you tell someone who has lost a parent that God is the father to the fatherless (which is 100% true), before you tell them that God will take care of them, which is also true, give them a hug, a long one if they may, cry with them if you want to, check on them too once in a while. 

I am not saying it is not important to say the word of God over situations, not at all. I'm just saying that having the solution to a problem doesn't relieve us of the duty to love.

The heart behind the word of God as you say it is also important. A compassionate "God will take care of you" sounds so different from a plain "God will take care of you."

I pray that God teaches me to do the hard work of becoming the best Christian other people will ever meet. Amen.

It's been another amazing Wednesday.

Thank you for reading this week's blog.

God bless you.