I’m from the generation and grew up in a place where once a young person reached a parent-determined acceptable age, “cruising” was the main form of entertainment and socialization. We would cruise for hours up and down Main Street with the occasional stop and chat time in the town parking lot. This weekend, during a hometown visit, my sister asked a friend what he was doing and his reply was, “just out cruising to see what’s going on.” Not only did his response bring back fond memories but it made me ponder how incredibly different our everyday worlds are, even though we are only separated by one hundred miles on the map. Living in Northern Virginia, the last thing I or anyone I know would do on a Saturday morning is cruise up and down Richmond Highway just for fun to see what is going on. And if someone were to admit doing such a thing we would seriously question their cognitive health.
Just like the two extremes of life I witnessed this weekend, Jesus’s teachings were utterly foreign and astonishing to the early followers (Mark 7:28). He was driven out of his hometown of Nazareth, and a plot to kill Him was devised because of the message He was teaching (Luke 4:28-30). He was questioned, mocked, and criticized because the life of freedom He was offering was one hundred and eighty degrees different than life under the Jewish teachers of the law. I’m sure more than one person questioned His cognitive health. Mark chapters 5-7 records Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. Within those three chapters, a masterful exposure of the law and its Pharisee-enforced legalism is contained, closing with a call to true faith and salvation. The concept of salvation by faith, freely given by grace for all people was utterly amazing to them (Mk 1:22, 6:2, Luke 4:32) and a totally alien concept.
According to George Barna, forty-six percent of American adults are now unchurched, an increase from 35% in 2005. Considering this very concerning statistic, the likelihood of encountering a person who has never heard the Good News is becoming more and more possible. There is a high probability of an unchurched person viewing our Christian life as irrelevant or immaterial because it is a foreign concept to them, just as with the early followers of Jesus. So, what are we to do about this gloomy statistic? In my humble opinion, we should concentrate on being the people God has called us to be and that is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love others as much as we love ourselves (Matt 22: 37-39). By living out this Great Commandment, the Grace that overflows to others will touch one life at a time and they will be astonished and amazed. And that’s your Tuesday Tidbit.
Today’s pictures are of the Church of the Beatitudes that sits on the spot where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount and the other is the view looking down the hill where the crowds would have gathered. The Sea of Galilee is at the foot of the hillside.
Seeing God in the Little Things of Everyday Life
