Commentator and veteran blogger Jennifer Sharpe has always looked for the funny and quirky online, but this time she found it in the comments of one of her more serious Facebook updates.
SHARPE: I've just been through one of the worst losses an Angelino can go through--my car got stolen. Humbled, I had to walk to a friend's house for help. But it wasn't until later that night when I sank into my couch and logged on to Facebook that my anxiety finally began to subside, thanks to some first responders on my social network.
FACEBOOK ENTRY(Jenifer Sharpe): Holy Smokes, my car got stolen!
SHARPE: The first sympathy comes from Jenifer Holmes in San Francisco:
FACEBOOK RESPONSE (Jenifer Holmes): May the thief get swift Karma, which they cannot rationalize as anything else.
SHARPE: Next Randy Mills wants to know:
FACEBOOK RESPONSE (Randy Mills): What kind of car was it?
FACEBOOK ENTRY (Jenifer Sharpe): It's a charcoal 2004 Toyota Matrix with a spoiler. So strange to think it's out there somewhere without me.
SHARPE: Ingrid Heather wants more detail.
FACEBOOK RESPONSE (Ingrid Heather): From where?
FACEBOOK ENTRY (Jenifer Sharpe): Venice. Our last moments together, parked, singing along to Black Coffee In Bed...And when it was actually being stolen, I was probably sipping a Cappucino, and thinking about Espadrilles.
FACEBOOK RESPONSE(Ingrid Heather): Don't mean to sound callous, but when things settle down, we may have to discuss Espadrilles.
SHARPE: Espadrilles are canvas shoes with rope soles, usually flat but sometimes made into heels, originating in the Pyrenees.
FACEBOOK RESPONSE (Randy Mills): Did you call the insurance company? How about the cops?
FACEBOOK ENTRY (Jenifer Sharpe): Yes, Randy, I filed a police report. I even have a Lojack. But on to the Espadrilles: This woman walks into Cafe Intelligencia wearing some, and I suddenly wanted a pair of Espadrilles like I haven't wanted a pair of Espadrilles since 1988. What are your thoughts on the matter?
FACEBOOK RESPONSE (Ingrid Heather): Well, I love Espadrilles, especially navy ones with white pants.
SHARPE: Ingrid Heather continues.
FACEBOOK RESPONSE (Ingrid Heather): But I've noticed that nobody makes a basic, dark navy, classic Espadrille with a high enough heel. Instead, everyone is ripping on Espadrilles. Have you found ones you like?
SHARPE: No, my quest for Espadrilles had been interrupted by my car getting stolen. And where was it now? On some dock in San Pedro being loaded into a shipping container? Erica Hughes speaks to my loss.
FACEBOOK RESPONSE (Erica Hughes): Jenifer, I am really sorry about your car. But about the Espadrilles: I'm was thinking about them yesterday.
FACEBOOK RESPONSE (Coco Niehoff): I'm sorry about the wheels, but maybe this link will cheer you up.
SHARPE: Coco Niehoff in Amsterdam.
FACEBOOK RESPONSE (Coco Niehoff): It's the Mother Ship of Espadrilles in Europe. It's a Spanish company.
SHARPE: The idea of someone's grubby hands on my steering wheel fades behind collections of Espadrilles, as my friends succeed in moving me past my trauma. The next morning I announce:
FACEBOOK ENTRY (Jenifer Sharpe): Hallelujah! They recovered my car. My Lojack prevailed. Everybody--get a Lojack....and some Espadrilles.
How utterly and completely idiotic. Yet, somehow, very real.
You see, when we try to sit people down and discuss what's really important, like their eternal destiny, or big decisions they are trying to make on their own without God's help, they often have other, less serious, things on their minds. Like cars, or shoes, or TV shows, or a thousand other things that distract them. That's why missionaries have more success than evangelists--the missionaries live among the people, and share their joys and sorrows. The evangelists come in, pound the pulpit, then leave.
Don't get me wrong--God uses both. But the danger with evangelists is that they have no roots. And the danger with missionaries is that they, too, might get caught up in the mundane, the very distractions that are keeping their message from being heard. Like the woman above who, though her car had been stolen, focuses her attention on trendy shoes, we know that we need to share the gospel, but we have other things that we like to talk about, too.
So the gospel of Jesus Christ gets pushed down on the list of things on our lips, and on our hearts, and on our minds. But it is on the list. And if we could somehow underscore the message, and make it more urgent without sounding pretentious, then we would win more souls to Christ.
When C.S. Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters, he tried to think like a demonic spirit would think. One of the weapons, logically, would be to distract from the message of Christ, to relegate it to one of the less frequent things we discuss. After writing it, he said he had never felt so filthy in his soul. He said he never wanted to write another book in the voice of a demon, because he couldn't stand the drain, physically and mentally. That's what Satan wants--to drag us down to his level.
So I urge you, Dear Readers, to elevate your thinking; elevate your speaking. "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." (Philippians 4.8).
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