Coffee To Go

A Jen Hatmaker quote I read has haunted me for some time. Years, in fact. It loudly haunts me now. 

“I wondered if the American church was like well-mannered nice-talkers, sitting in a living room sipping coffee, talking about choir practice, while the world burns down outside our windows.”

This wrecks me. I can’t be that. I won’t be. I don’t often know what to do, honestly. The enormity of the world’s pain grips me and leaves me frozen in place far more than I care to admit. But I can’t just be still. I can’t just “bless their hearts”. I can’t just sit around & talk nice when I could do so much more. I don’t go to church to sit. I’ve sat enough. 

I don’t think Jesus lived, died, and came back from the actual dead so we could just sing a few songs and try not to cuss. I can honestly tell you that church makes me cuss more than anything else. This infuriating sit around mentality makes me crazy, when instead we could be LIVING OUT audacious love and pointing to Christ when asked to explain it. It should make us uncomfortable sometimes. We should question our own sanity and fight every single day against our own legalistic, rule-following hearts that say not everyone deserves this. But they do. 

We don’t often know when we’re in the middle of a miracle, but I don’t want to miss the opportunity to be a part of something huge when I see it either. I’m not going to just sit. The potential of Christianity, what it’s intended to be, it is powerful. We could meet people where they are, in their needs...we can help with physical needs, fight wrongs, stand for social justice, do good works, kind works... we can do ALL of that. All Jesus said to do is “follow me.” 

If you read all of that - thanks. I don’t know why I wrote this crazy missive. It’s a constant uphill battle in my own heart and mind and it needed an outlet tonight, I guess. I’m deeply grateful for the doers, the passionate, and the rescuers, even when the flood waters cover their own homes. My heart absolutely breaks at that kind of love. My family are people who went to work to help people with trees on their own houses and parts of their own roofs missing. I was raised by generations of people who consistently do for others  despite themselves. I can’t be a sitter. My coffee will always need a to-go cup. ♥️

TL;DR = Just help people. Please.