I must say that I’m an awful blogger. For those of you who check my blog on a regular basis, you know what’s coming. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be a lazy blogger, I just don’t know what to say when I sit down to do it. I’m trying to work on that skill, so bear with me.
Well, today I am at home because our dog Buddy is having what I believe to be back spasms. When he walks he does so with a limp, and he keeps his back legs lower than the rest of his legs. It started last night when Taylor got home from church. She called me in a panic because Buddy was crying and couldn’t get comfortable. We gave him some baby aspirin last night and put him in his bed and he laid perfectly still and went right to sleep. This morning he seemed to be doing ok, but was still limping. We gave him another aspirin and I stayed home to take care of him. I took him outside to go to the bathroom and he seemed to do fine (he hiked his leg and all) but when we came back inside he tried to lay down and cried in every position he tried to lay in. So I put him in his bed and called the vet. We have an appointment at one. Hopefully he’ll be better soon.
Last night I taught the youth group class. Normally I lead singing and Jason does the lessons, but we reversed the roles last night. In three weeks, we are going to kick off a mission project, and we wanted to get the kids pumps primed. We are going to be partner with an organization called, “Champions for India” and we’re going to bring a fresh water pump to a community of people in India that do not have fresh water. I’ll post more about that later.
Anyways, last night we talked about seeing the harvest that is in front of us. I put several of those optical illusion pictures up on the screen and asked the teens what they saw. Was it an old lady or a young lady? Two young couples or two old couples? People talking or pillars? You get the idea. I talked about how in all these pictures there are actually two things to see, but that you have to train your eyes to see both of them. Then I put up a picture of a pile of trash. When I asked the kids what they saw they said, “trash.” I said, “You’re right! But to someone else, like the homeless, this pile of trash is actually home.” We looked at several pictures of teenagers that, on the outside at least, looked like they had it together. At a first glance they were just everyday teenagers, but then we looked deeper and saw the hurt they were experiencing. We learned of the struggle to smoke pot and drink. We learned of the problems of being in a sexually abusive relationship. We learned of the hurt of parents getting a divorce in the midst of being the all-state quarterback.
Jesus asked Simon a profound question in the middle of Simons dinner party that was being disrupted by a prostitute. This prostitute had come in and was making a scene during this party by weeping over Jesus feet, and wiping his feet with her hair. Everyone in the room was offended except Jesus. Jesus then turned to Simon and said, “Simon, do you see this woman?”
What?!? Do I see this woman? I can only imagine that Simon was thinking, “Of COURSE I see this woman Jesus! Who doesn’t see this woman?”
But that’s not what Jesus was asking.
Jesus was asking Simon, “Do you see this woman?” Jesus wanted to know if Simon saw this woman like Jesus saw her. There was a tremendous opportunity for Simon and he was more concerned about his own life, his own party, his own agenda…to notice the lost soul standing right in front of him.
When Jesus was sending out the seventy-two in Luke chapter 10 he said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”
Do you see the harvest? Do you see the harvest? Do you notice those who are around you that are searching desperately for truth because their lives are in total chaos. Do you see the hurt and the marginalized? Do you see the harvest ready to be reaped or do you just see people who probably wouldn’t care anyways?
Open your eyes and see the harvest.
