I have recently been working a lot more from a local modern day watering hole, call me crazy or addicted to coffee, but its changing my view on quite a few things.
Sitting at my usual table drinking my coffee working on a message, I see quite a few people that I know throughout the day. Some from church, some from the community, some from other places, many that I have met simply by being here so often. I wrote about one of my favorite mornings not too long ago, this is what happened:
“I got to talk with a mom from our church who home-schools her kids and she gets one day a week where she isn’t with them and she gets some “Adult Time” and also time alone with her youngest.
We caught up a little and she went on to a conversation with another mom from our church and I went back to work. A little while later her beautiful little kiddo walked over to me and asked me if I could pray for her eye because it was hurting her.
I dropped everything, grabbed her face and prayed. Nothing crazy, nothing long, just that heaven would invade her body and her eye.
This kiddo looked up and me and said thanks... meanwhile my heart proceeded to melt within me.”
Even today as I have been writing all of this down I have gotten to have conversations with five different people that I would not normally see. Each and every one of the conversations has impacted my life. I got to listen to two of them tell me about how God is literally moving mountains in their lives, I got to listen as a college student asked questions, I got to hug a friend's neck. If I chose to isolate myself from people and the places they travel daily I would have missed these incredible moments.
I think so many times we complicate what Jesus did on the earth. I complicate it. I don't think that he did anything that is outrageously complicated. I think he intentionally captured the moments of His days.
Jesus walked everywhere and had long conversations along the way.
Jesus taught and gathered with people in places that they were already gathering.
Jesus performed healings and miracles in the normalest of places a wedding, a house, a dinner, a field, a street.
Jesus changed an entire community by hanging out with a woman no one else would associate with at a watering hole.
I am extremely blessed to be able to work anywhere that there is WiFi, and I know that not everyone can do that.
I also know that no matter where you work or live, there are places where people naturally congregate to talk and hang out.
I am not advocating that we all quit our jobs. I am not advocating that we insist that our bosses allow us to work from coffee shops, although I think many small-business owners of modern-day watering holes would!
What I am advocating is that as disciples we begin to live our lives on purpose, for a purpose greater than ourselves. The purpose of displaying the character of Jesus to those around us. The purpose of bringing Heaven to Earth. The purpose of being a city on a hill and salt to the Earth. The purpose of changing our communities.
“What if we gathered with other Disciples one day a week and lived like Disciples all the others?
What if when we gathered with other Disciples we met in places in our community that people gather and invited people into relationship and conversation?
What if modern-day Disciples gathered at modern-day watering holes and began to see modern-day miracles happen?”
I am learning that we cannot bring heaven to earth if we constantly keep it locked in our cubicles, our houses, and our local church buildings. And you cannot have encounters with the character of God wrapped up in other people if you don't take time to be with people.
My prayer is that we would live like Jesus. That everyday we would live with intentionality in our conversations, interactions, and decisions. That we would regularly interact with people who call our communities home, on their level, on their turf, in our community's modern-day watering holes, with an agenda to love like Jesus, nothing more. I pray that we would allow the Holy Spirit of God to lead our conversations and that we would live to see Heaven invade Earth.
Just my thoughts.