I had a dream last night. Like most of my dreams, I only catch muddled scraps in the fog of waking. I don’t read too much into my dreams because sometimes I don’t have pants and other times I eat things that aren’t food. But one thing that stood out to me very clearly was that I was meeting new people and seeing them different places throughout the week (I guess my dreams have weeks). They became like the familiar cast of a sitcom.
Sitcoms are interesting because they are focused. Side characters come and go for various reasons but as a whole the writers tend to focus on a limited group and their interactions. It is far easier to get attached to Alf, Raymond, or Herman Munster than the rotating cast of vocal competitions or shows about surprise house remodels.
Lately I have been learning that this is one way God’s love flows to people. Focus. He calls us to give ourselves very deeply to a limited number of people. He calls us to walk alongside our neighbors in the mundane tasks of life.
Scott calls these ‘touchpoints’. They are the bible studies and soccer games that give us interaction with the same people week after week. But these are not the only interactions. There are trips to the hospital, spontaneous additions to the dinner table, and rides to the grocery store. The point is, we see the same people countless times in a week.
I tend to want to run around and love everybody just a little bit. A word of encouragement here, a prayer there. But this is not Jesus’ model of ministry.
Sure, He toured the countryside casting out demons, multiplying fish, and causing the blind to see. But in all of this He spent three full years eating three meals a day with twelve ordinary dudes. They worked out the logistics of travel together. They sat around campfires and talked about the day, complained about bugs, and pondered God.
I read somewhere that it takes human DNA anywhere from 15 seconds to 45 minutes to completely transcribe. Jesus took at least three years to disciple the men who followed him around. Are we really content to let someone pray a prayer, pat them on their back, and send them on their way?
Or will we be willing to lay down our own rights in a millions little ways and share our lives with a small community to see them come to know Christ better? This is what I yearn to learn: how to invite hungry people into the life of joy.
