Betting On the Global Bar Fight

Traveler’s tip #324
If you’re vacationing in the Islamic Caliphate, it might be fun to take along a stack of Coexist bumper stickers to hand out to the guys for their military vehicles.
 
 
Jesus said, “When you see these things beginning to take place, look up. Your redemption draws nigh.” Is your neck getting stiff? Man, mine is.
 
It’s a whirlwind out there. So many things twisting with such insane abandon it must be spiritual. Brothers and sisters are being tortured and killed around the globe everyday for nothing more than having the audacity to take the hand of the God of Love. To bake or not to bake?—Make it stop! Deals being struck. Deals not being struck. Donkeys and elephants shaking their fists at one another. On and on it goes… A global bar fight, and the blood of sinner and saint alike is soaking into the sawdust on the floor.
 
And here I am, like many of you, spinning through space with the dust and stars and tumbleweeds and bits of trash. I find myself looking for ways to hedge my bets against the spiritual and political climate of the day. I wrack my brain for some way to build a razor wire fence around everything I love and believe. Just like the seekers at Mars Hill in Apostle Paul’s day, I grope in the darkness for an answer that’s right beside me, loving me, whispering out of the wind.
 
The most unpopular answer of all—Jesus. God of Love, wild and free.
 
Why? Because He’s the lover of the lost. He’s the radical. He’s political poison. He’s the crusher of walls. He rejoices over the prodigal’s return. He is LOVE without cost. He is gentle and just. He’s the friend of hookers and children and addicts and the I.R.S.
 
I’m in no position to judge anyone. That’s already happened and men are found wanting. Inflicting my vision of morality on a fallen world is pointless. Winning the debate makes me nothing but right. Who cares about that? But there is something I can offer. Just like Paul, I can bring the stripped down, simple message that offers hope and peace and light and life. I can say—Come home! Your Father misses you! I can show them Jesus. Be they rich or poor, gay or straight, tele-evangelist or talk show host, king, common man, or lice-ridden child on a Honduran street. I can show them love. And that’s something worthwhile. 
 
President Obama needs Jesus.
Congress needs Jesus.
Billy Graham needs Jesus.
Jews and Palestinians need Jesus.
Donkeys and elephants need Jesus.
Bakers and buyers need Jesus.
The ACLU needs Jesus.
The ACLJ needs Jesus.
I need Jesus.
You need Jesus.
 
If He is the answer then there’s no more fight. And He will be. When the final punch gets thrown to clear the floor… His love… is a bottomless ocean.
 
Fair winds,
Buck

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