"Jesus had finished the work God gave him to do,
and the resurrection
was the proof that God was satisfied."
--John Piper
Today I started reading my first John Piper book, The Passion of the Christ. Brian S. said he was reading Piper stuff some time ago and liked it, so when I saw the book on clearance at LifeWay 50% off yesterday, thought I'd give it a go.
He writes in ways that make me think more about nonbelievers line of thinking. Some of it is review for me, BUT the presentation is good to remember when sharing the message of Christ--how others approach our faith and issues they have with it. His writing reminds me of the apostle Paul's, as in: "I know we all think XYZ, but that doesn't add up to the real message of Christ because ________."
As I read it, I remembered a young girl I met this week at McDonald's. She is a Goth--or trying to be (seems to be searching). When I met her, she had just been talking with another older Goth girl (I noticed many self inflicted wound scars on the full length of the older girl's arms.)
Later, out of the blue, the younger girl was suddenly beside me across the restaurant fixing a drink, not even knowing why she was there. She was like, "What am I even doing over here, they fix their own drinks." It was like something "pulled her" over to me...I didn't quite know what to do with her. She hadn't even taken my order.
She said, "Do you think I'm weird?" I sort of paused and wondered if she was talking to me. Then she continued, almost talking to herself, "They all tell me I'm weird."
So, I'm thinking, this girl is searching, she's Goth, and she wants to know if I think she's weird.
She was waiting.
Finally, after another interruption, she was still there. I turned to her and said, "No, I don't think you are weird...I think most of us are about as weird as we want to be." And, she just sort of looked at me, and I left. She had to go back to work.
I really couldn't think of anything thoughtful to say to help her, but hopefully acceptance and truth both rang in there somewhere. I may give her the book, who knows. Thought of her because Piper discusses the role of Christ and his chosen path of suffering. Thought she might get into it.
Piper commented that the word PASSION is derived from a Latin word meaning suffering. Go figure.
Welcome your thoughts and comments!
Thanks to Randy for sending the blog link today http://readshlog.blogspot.com/.
Great blog. Inspired me to write my own.
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