Wanna be RED?

Just watched RED: Retired Extremely Dangerous. I love watching movies where the bad guy is eliminated in 1 hour and 45 minutes (the movie is actually 111 minutes long) and the good guy gets to jump in there and kick … something or shoot something … really just make the bad guys pay! I mean the story line is just long enough to enjoy getting all worked up and involved with the characters and plenty short enough to share the whole thing with a friend or too and remote enough that I can go to bed and forget all about it. SO not like real life.

In real life … I prefer problems that I can solve and feel like the hero OR problems that my husband can solve and I’m married to the hero OR problems that my friends have and it takes me, or them, 1 hour and 45 minutes to help out and “poof” the problem’s solved. SO not like real life.

In real life … about the only problem that can be solved in 1 hour and 45 minutes is dinner … Start to finish and it’s done. Most of my problems take days, weeks, months, years … They take my prayers, my husband’s prayers, my family’s prayers, my friend’s prayers, … God’s intervention.

In real life … I’ve spoken to people who’re homeless, who’ve lost their jobs, who’re addicted to food or drugs, who have no idea how to maintain healthy relationships … and my response? … I want to solve it … my mind (with its extensive knowledge of book and movie lore) begins to search for the 1 hour and 45 minute solution … you know the plot (if you’re American) because we’ve seen the solution on the screen or on the printed page all our lives. And worse, once I’ve arrived at a solution, I’ve opened my mouth and suggested it. I don’t know about you, but I rarely need to pray to come up with these great ideas to solve social issues, to solve other people’s problems, to solve my own … because the answer is obvious … right?

In real life … that’s not how God works. It’s not how He works with me and it’s not how He works with you and it’s not how He works with the homeless, jobless, hopeless, hurting people who desperately need our help … not our help … God’s help. In real life they need someone who will give them every opportunity to change, every opportunity to accept free gifts of hope and healing … of encouragement and energetic friendship … of solutions that are patient enough for a lifetime of giving.

Remember Judas? Jesus knew from the beginning who was going to betray Him and yet He continued to offer him opportunities to “flip” over to the good side. Remember Peter? Jesus knew He was going to deny Him, in fact He warned him that he would deny Him three times and yet when he did, Jesus forgave Peter and welcomed him back. Remember the 10 lepers? Only one of them came back and said thank you. Remember me? Oh … maybe you don’t know me … but God has given me grace and forgiveness and opportunities to learn from Him … over and over and over … I’ll run out of paper … I’ll run out of ink … I’ll run out of megabites before I would run out of ways that He has rushed to help/save/solve my dilemmas.

In real life … there are too few of us who are willing to just be someone’s friend … to just pray for God to help these people and then go the extra mile, give the extra jacket, … to just give Jesus as a solution. I don’t want to be a Religiously Educated Dingbat. I want to be RED: Radically Empowered Disciple. I want to be someone who runs to help the poor and needy … and stays till the job is done not just 1 hour and 45 minutes … in real life … wanna be RED?