Meeting Someone Where They Are

Pick up your Bible, go ahead, I’ll wait! Pick it up! Find me one perfect person, other than Jesus. I’m waiting…

So did you find anyone? Probably not; matter of fact, one man came with questions about religion, and he did so at night so no one would know. One woman came with her same, she had been thrown out in the streets and labeled an adulteress. One man came and begged for the healing of his child; another was so eat up with demons that when the demon was asked it’s name, it replied “Legion” because there were many. 

Over and over and over again we see people come to Jesus, and despite where they are, their circumstances, their past and their frailties—He met them—where they were. Psalm 34:4 states God met me more than halfway, he freed me from my anxious fears. (The Message)

This week, I got to meet someone right where they are. I was terrified. You see at my job, I am known as a Bible Thumper, a Christian, some of my co-workers call me Pastor. When I was going through a draught in my faith; my friend Vicki would often ask me “Why would my favorite Chaplain ever say this or that?” When I worked in the school system, I was the one that had no problem going to a classroom and saying a prayer for a teacher or with the teacher who was facing a battle that she didn’t want to face alone. Yet, I never really knew what it meant to be a minister, even as a Christian. 

This is the image on the hoodie, I in NO WAY
endorse the Black Craft Cult Clothing Line. 

This week, this amazingly stressful week, I got to do just that. You see I walked into work and a young man was walking in front of me wearing a Black Craft Cult (Satanic Clothing Line) shirt. Immediately I felt my hands start to sweat, and I got nervous. At the time I didn’t realize that the clothing line was Satanic, but I knew the image that was on the shirt had a lot to do with the Church of Satan. 

Then I remembered the words of John Wesley taken from the Apocrypha “Flee from sins as from the face of a serpent: for if thou comest near them, they will take hold of thee.” (Sirach 21:3) But here I was facing the serpent himself. Granted it was an image of the serpent; the Goat Baphomet. 

I sent my Pastor a text and told him what I had encountered, but the oddest thing happened. As he sat down at his desk, one of my co-workers saw me walking by and said “Hey Pastor! Come here!” So I walked over to her desk and the new employee just watched me. My friend asked a question and I answered her and then proceeded to my desk. 

Later that day as I rounded a corner, this young man said “Oh, excuse me, ma’am.” I told him “Oh, no worries. My name is Rachel.” He said “Oh, so you’re the one they called Pastor? Are you a Pastor?” I explained that I wasn’t officially a pastor, but that it was my calling and that I had been deferred by my dCom. He bid me a good day and I walked away feeling really kind of gross. You know the feeling, the one where you feel dirty, but you know that you had a bath?

On my last break, I went outside and sat in my car. The young man came walking up beside it to get in his car and he was swearing up a blue streak, and when he saw me he hung his head and said “I’m sorry, Pastor Rachel.” I told him “It is quite alright, we all have our frailties and things we need to work on.” One of the guys he was walking with kept walking and when the young man caught up with him, he said “Are you really wasting time talking to a pastor?” The new employee said “Yeah, just because I wear this (his Satanic hoodie) doesn’t mean, I can’t talk to her.” 

Friends, that is meeting someone where they are. I didn’t ask this kid to change, I didn’t talk to my supervisor about his clothing, I just answered questions from co-workers about the symbolic meaning of his shirt; and he saw something different. I can’t tell you all his name, but I hope that you will pray for him. Pray that I can be a light to him and show him Jesus in a way that maybe he’s never experienced. 

As I am able, and if I get permission, I will continue this article later.