As Our Hero Rides Off into The Sunset
Maybe we couldn’t call him a hero, but he (or she) is at least a real person who could be a hero. Is a female hero known as a “shero”? Calling someone a “heroine” seems wrong somehow! But I digress.
While I was teaching high school AND serving as a youth minister, a student came to me with an unusual question. She asked, “Mr. Lewis, am I weird? Some people make fun of me and say I am weird.” This sweet young lady was very much a drama person and very wide-eyed and excited. My answer was one I had never considered until that moment. I said, “Well, the way I see it, the only normal person that ever lived was Jesus Christ and the rest of us are strange or different. So, I guess that makes all of us a little weird.” I am not sure if that brought any relief to her troubled heart, but I think it did.
Somebody or some somebodies rejected her and made her feel unacceptable because she was “different”. Acceptance is one of those Top Ten Relational Needs we have been studying for the last few years through our 52 Week Plan installments. Acceptance by our definition means “receiving others willingly and unconditionally (even when their behavior has been imperfect) and loving them, in spite of any differences that may exist between you and them.
(Romans 15:7)
What difference would it have made to this young lady if there had been acceptance given to make her feel wanted, loved, and included? My hope is that she did experience acceptance somewhere along the way. I don’t know for sure, but I surely hope she was accepted at home.
Who in your life may feel rejected? Do you know someone in your family or outside it who needs to know acceptance especially if they are “different” or have been struggling in ways that make them feel like a failure?
Walk in the Light of Jesus: Read the following passage and see how Jesus handles people who are rejected and different.
Mark 7:25-30
25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet.
26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Without going too deeply into this passage, I want you to see what happened when the Gentile woman, whose daughter was possessed with demons, kept asking Jesus for help. Though, being a Gentile, she would have been rejected by most Jews, Jesus kept engaged in the conversation to give her a chance to demonstrate her faith in Him. She was desperate to get help for her daughter. Jesus was her only chance for “salvation” for her daughter. She persisted. Every step she took was her faith overcoming cultural obstacles. She, a woman, was not to be so bold with a man. She, a Gentile/non-Jew, was not to be so bold with a Jew. Her daughter was both Gentile and demon-possessed, so there would be more sources of rejection by the “proper” people.
But Jesus granted her the request. He commended her for her faith. He accepted her differences and all.
Jesus accepts you and me when we come to Him with our failures and differences. We are sinners. He isn’t. We are certainly not the people God gave us potential to become. We have fallen short of God’s glory. We haven’t even lived up to our own expectations and hopes for ourselves, or perhaps I should just speak for myself. I had hoped to be much more conformed to Christ’s image by this point in life; had hoped to love more as He does; had hoped to have a greater impact for His Kingdom than I have; etc. Do you see what I mean?
But Jesus loves and accepts me on the basic of grace through faith in Him.
My “ask” this week is simple. Would you prayerfully find someone in your family, neighborhood, church, work, or somewhere in your circle of acquaintances who seems to be rejected by others and find a way to accept them? Would you let someone perhaps classified by the culture or your own biases as unacceptable and show them the love of Jesus? Listen to them. Talk to them. Have a meal with them. Invite them to meet with you and your friends or family.
You get the idea. I get the idea. Let’s Go!
Would you be willing to pray this with me?
Father, there are hurting people around who feel rejected and unacceptable to others. Help us to break through the barriers and show Jesus’ love to them. Help us become habitually accepting of those others reject.
You just might become someone’s hero(heroine), if you did that to rescue a “damsel in distress” or “a guy who believes he has no value in life”.