.love them like JESUS.

Well.. today was the big day! On September 4, 2007, I started my first day as a senior at Bedford High School.. I'm having some mixed emotions about it.. We have started a lot of new things this year, which is ok because change is good.. I was really looking forward to just finally being done and being able to move on to college, but now as that is approaching I find that I'm a little sad to leave behind the things that I know.. I know that this year is going to fly by and that I need to make the most of it..
More importantly I need to decide how I am going to spend my senior year and what kind of example I will set to those around me.. I was reading a blog the other day about missionaries and why they choose the fields they do and how some don't feel they are needed here.. I understand their perspective.. There is a church on every corner, mostly everyone in America has heard of Jesus in some form or another and most believe that they are followers of Him.. However, a point was brought up that they should be left to fend for themselves, which I do not understand..
You see, everybody is looking for something.. And no one can be completely filled unless they have accepted Christ, but most do not know that, and most do not want that to be the answer to their problem.. No one wants to have something or someone bigger to answer to, it makes their problems real, it makes the consequences for their actions much more serious than anything that could happen here on Earth..
You see at one time I was just like them, I needed God but I didn't know it.. And even when I did know it, I fought it for much longer than I care to admit.. But if you could see inside the lives of these students, co-workers, friends and family members, you would see the hurt.. You would see the pain that is so real to them that it makes them sick to their stomachs, it takes their breath away, it causes their addictions, and before they realize it they are in much deeper than they started..
It is very hard to get out of that place, and no one can do it alone.. They all need Jesus, but if they cannot see Jesus in us because we have turned our backs to them.. They will never make it out.. You see no one comes to Jesus just because they wake up in the morning and want to try something new because the old way just doesn't cut it.. Something brings them to that point, they are broken, and they remember that you and I stretched out a hand.. They know that there was one place that they could go that would take them in and love them like Jesus..
So instead of saying that there is no excuse, they should all be believers, they have had every opportunity in the world to do so.. Maybe we need to quit criticizing and start evangelizing.. Stop judging and start accepting..
Maybe if we all sat down and remembered when we were exactly where they are.. We wouldn't be so quick to turn our backs, but much quicker to hold them and accept them right where they are at..

They're desperate for hope, darkness clouding their view.. They're looking to you.. He cares for them just as He cares for you