The Gospel Through Monica...

So I don't know about you, but over the past year or so and especially over the past few months, I've been trying to come up with the way I would explain the gospel or even more simplistic than that how I would explain this whole being a Christian thing to someone who doesn't get it. Think there's sort of a push right now to do things differently as far as presenting the gospel and leading people to a relationship instead of bringing them into an organization that they end up walking away from because there wasn't anything worth staying for because they didn't meet Jesus, they met our doctrine and quite honestly it was more disturbing than appealing.

I don't mean this to be insulting in any way but...quite honestly I got the affluent, white, republican, version of God and to be really honest that version is gonna speak to the people I'm coming into contact with right now about as well as a square peg in a round hole. So I've had to search myself hard and figure out what it is that makes God/Christ/Christianity appealing regardless of whether you are living a life of affluence where you feel as though justice is being served in your world, or whether you are a 17 year old teenager who has watched your mom work herself to death to attempt to provide for her family who is living in poverty, or a woman who has been left more times than she can count by men who promised to take care of her and it's been one lie after another in an attempt to find security, or...the list goes on and on.

So today I had one of those moments I'm sure you're familiar with that sort of just lock themselves in your soul somewhere and you pray they never escape. Think in some ways it spoke to me of what I really want to share when God gives me the opportunity of sharing why a relationship with Him changes your world. 3 of our kiddo's have a mother who doesn't show up for visitation. It's not so much that she doesn't want to I don't think...I want to believe that's the case. It's that she is so poor and so uneducated that she's unable to literally. In order to get her to the city ever to sign papers or do anything related to her children they have to give her directions like...you need to come when the first rain comes, or you need to come when the corn is ripe, because she has NO idea what month it is or what day it is or any of that. Can you even imagine??? Totally illiterate. Never really had a chance to learn and now can't come to see her children because she is mentally uncapable of knowing how. The children had made up names when they came to us because she never named them, never got a birth certificate, we have no idea when their birthdays are, no idea, but they'll have one!!! :) So anyway, today we're sitting in the living room and one of the ladies that works for us asked about visitation last week and if everything went well. Then she asked that question that made my heart break, she said did Fernando, Monica, and Katty's mom show up? Monica overheard and answered the question for herself...she said, "no and with this pathetic look on her face she said, I don't have a mommy." I said Monica when you were in Casitas Kennedy did your mommy come to visit and she said no. I said the only thing my heart would allow me to say in the moment, and I said "Monica would you like for me to be your mommy? Cause I'd really love to be a mommy to a little girl like you." I wish I had words and wish you could have witnessed what happened next...she threw her beloved babydoll on the ground and started jumping up and down and shouting si, si, si, si, si, si. Katty came over and said what and Monica jubilantly said, Tia Jen is going to be our mommy. Yep tears again!!!! Thought honey you didn't know it but when you came here we committed to being your mommy's but today you needed to hear it, today your heart got it.

And then...I thought yep and today your heart got it, cause that's really the beauty of the gospel isn't it. You know whether you're affluent or dirt poor we all sort of come to this place where we realize that we don't belong here on this earth and in a sense we're orphaned and when we realize it we kinda look around with this pathetic look on our faces and say, "nope the guy didn't give me security, nope the money never gave me hope, yes I'm desperate and feel oppressed in this life, and I need someone to come to the rescue here and love this weary heart" and then it's as if in that sacred moment when we truly are seeking it, you can almost hear this voice say, "Jen would you like for me to be your Father, cause I'd really like to be a Father to a little girl like you" and when we finish being humbled by the invitation and it finds it's way into the recesses of our heart, we throw down the other stuff, have a little celebration jump around and say yes yes yes yes yes yes, for all the days of my life yes!!

Guess today I just saw a new side of presenting the gospel as His invitation instead of our acceptance. For so long it's been about what we do, how we respond, and at least for me most often I think I've missed the point. Just want to make sure when I talk about the whole process the most important part is portrayed as his offer with hand outstretched to take us in and clean us off and love all over us. When that gets put in perspective, it's a whole lot more difficult to reject I think. It's the offer of a lifetime.

Saw Him today in Monica's eyes. Thought about how much I looked like her sweet self at one time, before Jesus moved in and said hey Jen, I'd love to love you...and when I finally got that, couldn't help but say YESSSSS!!!! Thank you and YES!!!