Today I had to make a presentation to the Cove Church staff (www.covechurch.org) on the developing CareerLIFE Ministry. It was great to see the whole team assembled in one meeting. I was amazed at how many of them I had already interacted with while serving either on the Remix Set-Up Team, the Statesville Campus Production/Set-Up Team, during the Job Search Basic class preparation and teaching, or just through attending weekly services. The work each team member does to further the cause of Christ through the Cove's ministry is incredible but what strikes me the most about the group is how they all are living their faith through their job, their obedience, and their service. To be around this group of people is truly inspiring.
At the beginning of the meeting there was a time for a devotional (hey, of course there was..It was a church leadership meeting, duh!!) and Christy (the awesome leader of Cove Kids Statesville and a tall drink of boundless energy..Redbull doesn't have a thing on Ms. Christy)was the one to share. She talked about the challenges of not being judgmental, drawing conclusions on first blush, and how we all struggle with how we quickly sum up people in our heads when we see them. Paul in his letter to Romans spent a great deal of time talking about this very subject(Romans 2:1-16). This hit home with me on several levels. For one, I have been guilty like many people of making judgments on people by the way they looked, dressed, talked, or acted. On the other side of the coin, because of the way I look, my tattoos, the fact that I skateboard, came from a poor family, shave my head, talk with a very thick southern accent, and pretty much look like a bouncer, it has been more than once someone has drawn a conclusion about me that probably was not accurate. One would think since I have felt the hurt of being judged in that manner I would not be so quick to act in the same way but alas it is trap I have fallen in more times than I wish to admit.
Christy had found a video on Youtube of a spoken word interpretative piece about the Woman at the Well(John 4 4-42). It was a powerful representation and I am glad I got to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49BbfgJbto
This scripture is one my favorites from the New Testament and has been one I have related to a great deal over my life. Though I was brought up in a strong Christian household albeit a poor one in a mill village in North Carolina called Gibson Mill (part of Concord, NC) and for the most part kept my nose clean as they say I struggled with being somewhat of an outcast. You see where I grew up back in the late 60's and throughout the 70's and early 80's people from "mill hill" were looked down upon by the "other side" of town in the more affluent areas. People who worked in the cotton mills and thus their children were labeled "lint heads", a derogatory term that came from the fact that cotton mill workers at shift end would take their work home with them so to speak in their hair, on their clothing, and pretty much all over. Cotton textile mills had to have high humidity throughout the plant to make the looms, yarn spinning frames, and other equipment run properly. The extra humidity, along with the sweltering heat inside the plants, made it virtually impossible to keep cotton dust and lint from clinging to some part of your body. "Lint Head" was the name used to refer to anyone who worked in the mill or were supported by someone who did. The connotation was that the person was not smart enough or good enough to not have to work in such conditions. The truth is, however, the overwhelming majority of textile mill workers in the South were strong Christians, hard working people, and completed dedicated to their families. Some of the smartest people I ever met were mill folk and I cherish my heritage. To be a "lint head" was to be judged by some people.
Within the mill village people looked after one another and were very protective of each other. Unless, you were different, or had something they did not have. I was blessed at an early age to learn to read. My grandmother and mother both taught me to read before I ever began elementary school. By the time I was in the first grade in the little school in my neighborhood, a school that was probably seventy percent mill hill children, I was reading on a 4th grade level. By the time I got to the 4th grade I took almost all of my English, reading, and math classes, separate from the other students because I was further ahead. Was I smarted than them? No. I just had been blessed with the advantage of parents and a grandmother that wanted something better for me than what they had in life and education was going to be the ticket out. As I grew into middle school and high school the friends I had grown up with in the neighborhood treated me different. Because I made better grades, took more advanced classes, and hung around with the smart "rich" kids, I was no longer accepted by my peers. In a sense I was outcast amongst the outcasts: Not being completely embraced by the other side of town because I was a lint head and no longer a full member of the mill hill gang because I was in more advanced classes with mostly kids from the other side of town.
The woman at the well was the ultimate "outcast among outcast". She was from Samaria, a small area north of Judea, that the Jews had great disdain for in those times. The Samaritans though they worshipped the same God as the Jews did not feel that they needed to worship Him in the temple of Jerusalem but rather on the mountain where they lived. The Jews hated them so much that they would literally travel miles out of their way on a journey in that direction just to keep from being "contaminated" by contact with the Samaritans by traveling through their country. Can you imagine? Driving or walking miles out of your way just to avoid the risk of actually coming face to face with someone of a different background than yourself? We don't do that now do we? To the Jews, the Samaritans were outcast. It is remarkable to note that Jesus not only traveled through the area but stayed there for two days. This would have been unthinkable of a Jewish man of that time.
The woman had had five husbands and was living with another man when Jesus met her at the well. It was midday, the hottest part of the day, when no one would have been at the well. She went then to avoid being seen by the other people of her village. Those people probably judged her, looked down on her, derided her for the lifestyle she had led, and treated her with disgust. She was a Samaritan outcast to the Jews and an outcast among the Samaritans themselves.
What is so awesome about this story is how Jesus decided to use her to spread His kingdom. First he went to where she was. She did not come to him. Second, after telling her everything about herself, he revealed who he truly was to her, the Son of the living God. I love this part because in most of the other writings from the Bible Jesus let others come to the conclusion of His true identity as the Savior but with the woman at the well He went directly to the heart of the matter: Vs26-"Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he.""
The encounter with Him face to face along with His clear declaration that He is the Savior was so compelling to this outcast that she ran back to her village to tell His story. She was so convincing in fact in her witness to what Jesus had said and done for her that this person who had been ridiculed, looked down upon, and derided by her own people, was now leading them to Christ. She of all people Jesus chose to tell His story. The other Samaritans were so thirsty for the water He could give them to drink that they bid Him to stay with them for two days.
I love this story because it reminds me of how God can use any of us, no matter what our walk in life, no matter what we have done in our past, and no matter how we are viewed by others. It also reminds me to not be quick to judge others. They too, might be part of God’s plan for the Good News.
I don’t want to miss out on the Good News they bring. How about you?
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