Picture this: there's Joe Sinner, just going about his day, thinking everything is going fine. All of a sudden he gets a phone call from his teenage son's school. He's in trouble...again. This time, they've found a bag of pot in his locker.
He's totally beaten down, ready to throw in the towel, and along comes his Chrimetrotisexualian friend (BTW, his name is Trevor, or Simeon, or something like that). Joe lets him know of his child's situation, and all Trevor/Simeon can come up with is how cool the video was this past week at church. He gives Joe some sort of irrelevant platitude. But wait...his presentation is pretty slick, and he compares Joe's situation to the time he found that the leather on his Fossil watchband was all stinky from his sweat (he calls it "glistening"), and he had such a terrible time of it, until he had to (gasp) wear the Armitron his sister bought for him last Christmas.
Of course, I'm being way over-the-top facetious, but do you get the picture? What does Joe Sinner need? He needs someone to help him get his son off drugs. He needs practical steps he can take to ensure his son's safety, his recovery and ultimately, his salvation.
Trevor/Simeon's Aeropostale shirt, his Seven for All Mankind jeans, and his Vans (or Steve Maddens) don't add up to the proverbial hill of beans. Joe doesn't care about his faux-hawk or the leather choker necklace around Trevor/Simeon's beautifully tanned nape. But the Christ-follower who helps Joe Sinner's son get off the ganja will be deemed relevant, even if said Christ-follower is wearing Wal-Mart jeans with a Yosemite Sam wallet tucked in the back pocket.
It's all about love, and being there for people, being "instant in-season and out," being REAL. If you happen to adopt the Trevor/Simeon style, that's OK, but PLEASE have some substance in your walk with Christ to at least put all that stuff away in order to meet the needs of those around you.
Tomorrow, I'll discuss the the fallacies of the phrase "Love them into the Kingdom." I hope you return.
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