All about unity

So, you know how I was rambling on about the song City on Our Knees, and how I hoped it was about evangelism and the such? Well, I just found a quick youtube clip of Toby explaining what the song was about. Great, I thought, now I'll know. So I watched it, and, though I know now what it's about, I don't think it's as great as I once did.

The song, says Toby, is about Unity. The moment when we lay aside our differences and we all come together, blah blah blah. What? Why are saints and sinners coming together, and what's their common ground? I'm not trying to be too critical here, but the whole point of sinners is that they're not saved yet. I, Toby, am saved. I, Toby, don't exactly have the ability to lay aside my differences--I'm saved and that's that. I, Toby, should be coming and sharing the gospel with them. We, Toby, are not going to a city with One King with said sinners if those sinners didn't get saved. We, Toby, are the light of the world, and if we can't differentiate between sinners and saints, than we need brighter lightbulbs.

And honestly, I'm not trying to sound like a grouch here, but the difference between me and my lost neighbour is that I have Jesus Christ living in my heart, and he doesn't (yet). That difference shouldn't prevent us from talking (and it certainly shouldn't prevent me from evangelizing, especially since my flesh seems to get in the way of that on its own enough as it is), but it certainly does prevent my neighbour and I from coming together in a unified, fellowshippy way. Sorry, Toby, you tried, and you missed.

Lose my soul

I was watching the music video for TobyMac's song, Lose My Soul, the other day. And, while I like the song, I think it's only fair to share that I didn't really understand the music video. Yes, yes, I got the part about the guy NOT killing himself (deciding he didn't want to lose his soul, I can only assume), but everything else? No clue.

For instance, I was sorry that the lady had to sell her wedding band, but was that showing that she was losing her soul? gaining the world? I couldn't figure it out. And the guys who stole the computer? What was that? Gaining the world? Because it didn't really fit in with the story. For a second I thought maybe the pawn shop guy was the one who was gaining the world/losing his soul. But I think he was a good guy. He admired the wedding band, and seemed to pay a good price, plus he smiled when the guy returned the gun without killing himself. That was... nice.

This is why I sometimes thing I should stick with hymns. They, at least make sense. Modern music, or whatever we call it, rarely does. For instance, I really like the new TobyMac song City On Our Knees, but I don't really understand it. Why are the sinners and saints meeting, and what are they doing? and if those sinners are truly sinners, then I'm sorry, but they're not coming to the city with One King without some serious Salvation. But I agreed with his general point of starting now and here. I mean, I agree, providing he's talking about evangelizing or something. Like I said, I'm really not sure what he's getting at in that song.

But I think it's about evangelism, since he talks about third-world missions and stepping across the line. I've been thinking a lot recently about how little I evangelize, and it's been driving me crazy, my lack of evangelism-motivation.

So, here's hoping that when Toby is singing "we are one choice from together," what's he's saying is that if I get you saved, we'll be together forever. And then we can be family. That's cool with me, my friend. Getting saved is about the most glorious display we can find on earth. So maybe Toby knows what he's singing about, after all.

Give me words to speak

I fall so short. All the time. In every area.

But one area in which I've been feeling particularly short recently is the whole evangelizing thing. Sometimes I just don't open my mouth for the Lord. If someone wants to make the first move and ask me, then I'll talk, but otherwise? I just don't. Which is terrible, I fully recognize this.

For instance, as my brother and I were walking home from meeting one evening recently, we saw a guy wondering around some bushes with a flashlight. So, naturally, we stopped and asked him if we could be of any assistance. Turns out he'd lost the battery for his cell phone, and his wife was quite upset, so he was looking for it in the dark. So, we helped him look for it for a while, and when we all came up empty-handed, he said to just forget it, he'd look tomorrow.

So I told him I really hoped he found it, and I was sorry that he'd lost it. At which point, the guy called over his shoulder (he was walking away from us in rather a huff), "What's the point, this whole life is miserable and nothing goes right anyhow and she's going to kill me and nothing good happens..." His rather run-on sentence went on for a while, at least until my brother and I could no longer hear him, and that was that.

But I remember standing there thinking: should I be running after him? Because I know that there are good things in life, I know it's not all miserable! I have Jesus living in my heart! I apparently know something this guy doesn't know!

But I stood there and watched him go. I didn't even holler a "JESUS SAVES!" after him or anything.

I could justify my way out of that one, since he'd been walking away and everything, but recently I had another experience where I just didn't open my mouth, and really could have.

I was walking home from meeting on a Sunday afternoon, and in one of the parking lots I cut across (I believe in efficiency) I came across a group of old people, just sitting around in lawn chairs. So they asked me how my day was, what I'd accomplished, what I did for work, all that stuff. I told them a little about me, and one of the things I mentioned was that I taught Sunday School.

So one old dude told this story that went something as follows, "I taught Sunday School to high school students, and they were wondering how God could have made man after the cave men were already around, and so I explained that man wasn't really man until God put a soul in him."

I remember standing there looking at this guy thinking, "Wh-huh?" And I was still trying to work out his logic when some other guy started talking to me about job stuff and another old guy started asking me how I felt about Obama.

But again, that's no excuse! I shouldn't have let him tell such a completely weird thing and get away with it. Sure, he was old, but he's talking about my Saviour, here. I should be able to jump in and be like, "Oh, actually, I was just reading His letter the other day and I'm pretty sure you got it all wrong."

Ack. Like I said, I fall so short it's depressing.