THE "U" TURN

You turned the corner and to your surprise, there he lay, bloody, unconscious and with nothing to offer you. You have a choice to make. Nobody is looking ( or are they ). You can stay at a distance and walk on by. You could lean in to make a kind gesture and then continue on your way. You can call for help, or you can pick him up, examine his injury, take him to the doctor, pay for his care and promise to return and cover any bills that may result from his recovery. The choice is yours. Either way its extremely costly. On one hand, it may cost you your hard earned money, your reputation, your cleanliness, your time, your schedule, your plans, and your comfort. On the other hand it could cost him his life!

What will you do?

John 15:13 says….Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

In Luke chapter 10, Jesus, when questioned on what must be done to inherit eternal life states, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’^[a] and ‘your neighbor as yourself.

When asked who is your neighbor, Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan, which I liberally made personal at the beginning of this devotion. The answer is counter culture, its alien-esque. The one who shows mercy on those who are helpless, hopeless, dirty, unworthy, gross, homeless, broken, dieing, bruised, repulsive, offensive, stinky, broke, obnoxious, unkind, prideful, lustful, cheats, thieves, pompous, slanderous, unmerciful etc. The one who has mercy on those who qualify in the description above, they are those who are loving their neighbor as themselves.

Have we forgotten the following passages?

John 10:11

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

John 17:19

And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

Romans 5:7

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die.

Romans 5:8

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

I John 3:16

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

It was us laying there beside the road. It was us who were helpless, dieing, dead even. We had nothing to offer. We stunk. We were broken. We were forgotten. We were cast out. We were the enemy of the only one who could rescue us and none of that could deter him from picking us up, paying our price, leaving us in good hands and promising to return.  He has called us His own and now that we are reborn into his likeness, we should be transformed into a person capable of loving the unlovely, serving the arrogant, touching the unclean and sacrificing our comforts to potentially see another family member come alive.

One late night a few Decembers back, my wife and I were driving about 70 mph down the interstate and we both spotted a woman running frantically alongside the road. We passed her and immediately we both knew she needed help and God was urging us to be the help. She was dirty, running and crying. It was a bit scary because we didn’t know why she was running or who she was running from or to. I told Callie that I was turning around and she agreed. We chose to get uncomfortable to help someone who was clearly lost. We made the U turn and by the time we caught up with her, she was so far off of the road that we had an easy out if we wanted to take it. Compelled by love, we stopped and yelled to her, “we are here to help”. She ran towards us at this point. I was a bit uneasy until she got close enough to say, “ Thank You, I’m scared to death.” We got her in the car and she begin to tell of how she was working 3 jobs to make ends meet for her 3 children. On the way home, her car broke down and she was running because she was so scared. She prayed, God send me help and right when she said amen, we pulled over. She asked if we were angels….I said yes we are ( just kidding ) we said no, but we are representatives of Jesus. We let her call her mom from Cal’s phone, took her home, prayed with her and then we went home. It was so fulfilling to know we were hearing God say “go love her” right as she screamed out to Him, “help”.

We were later able retrieve her number from Callie’s phone, call her mom, get her children’s wish list for Christmas and secretly provide her and her family an extravagant Christmas. It was amazing! We felt like Jesus. Laying our lives down for the broken.

This quickening from the Father has impacted our family to this day. We now “adopt” a family each Christmas and bless them. It’s the most Christ-like thing we can do as a family, collectively sacrifice for a hurting family in hopes that they will see Jesus in us and become healthy members of the body of Christ.

So what about you?

Today at some point you will turn the corner and there they will be. Maybe not covered in blood, but covered in sin. Maybe they wont be physically dyeing, but spiritually dead. You have a choice. Will you be a “Christian” aka ( Christ like ) and follow Jesus by being their lifeline?

Or will you find a way around the situation?

See Matthew 16:24

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

NOTE:If you choose to love your neighbor and to lay down your life, you will live the “real”life that Jesus said is for those who love the unlovely!

Jesus puts it like this in Matthew 10:28

And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”