Cross the Divide

Many Christians today think their job is “telling” rather than “asking.” We want to tell people “the truth”; we want to tell people “the gospel”; we want to tell people even if they don’t want to hear. Jesus didn’t do this. Jesus provoked curiosity and willingness to hear by asking questions first. In John chapter four, it says Jesus and his disciples were going through Samaria but stopped at a well at noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) John 4:7–9

Jesus knew more than we do at this point. He knew all about her sketchy marital and sexual past—she had been divorced five times and currently lived with a man. Yet Jesus dignified her by asking her for a drink of water and engaging her in dialogue. She felt valued: “He’s talking to me, a Samaritan woman? He’s treating me with dignity rather than contempt?”

We should ask ourselves, do we cross society’s divides to dignify people? Do we cross racial, socioeconomic, and gender divides to engage in dialogue? How about crossing lifestyle and behavioral boundaries? We can be like Jesus by asking questions, listening, and dialoguing rather than telling, fixing, and changing. Trust

God’s Spirit of freedom to guide you. See, when we try to change people by making them conform outwardly, it doesn’t solve the real problem
we all have—a deep spiritual thirst that, apart from God, drives us all to drink muddy water. Jesus knows that unless we have spiritually satisfying water that comes from God’s Spirit, trying harder on our own just spiritually dehydrates us. Paul told us to simply stay willing to walk with the Spirit, knowing that changes us: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. . . . So I say, live by
the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature“. . . If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. . . . But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Galatians 5:1, 16, 18, 22–23
 People change when they willingly follow God’s Spirit in a moment-by-moment way. God doesn’t run over your free will; his Spirit works with your willingness. If this is how people change, not by trying to shape up and follow the law, but by following God’s Spirit, then we need to be people who help others willingly trust and follow the Spirit of God. That’s our only job, not fixing or changing people, but encouraging them to see why God is good and they can trust his Spirit to produce great things in them. Do you trust God’s Spirit to do his part of producing fruit in others, if you do your part—crossing divides to dignify, asking and
listening, encouraging others to freely love and willingly trust a God who is good? John Burke from the Mud and the Masterpiece.

This portion of the book really resonated with me simply because we will live in a city where there are so many social divides. It is really freeing knowing that all we have to do is take the risk and cross those divides. God will do the rest!

What about you? What risk can you take to help someone know God's Love and trust in His goodnes?

If you want to read more about what John is sharing here, get his book "Mud and the Masterpiece," buy it between now and the the 8th and get some really cool free stuff by going to www.mudandthemasterpiece.com.