I Am Done With... Not Eating With "Sinners"

Are we not the church? Isn't the church, by its very definition, the body of Christ? Is the body of Christ not Jesus? Did Jesus not say in Luke 5, Mark 2, and Matthew 9, that He did not come to call the righteous but the sinners?

I am done with not eating with "sinners."

A precious 18 year old boy came home with us on Saturday night. After three days of detoxing he has officially begun to do battle with a heroin addiction and we get a front row seat. He was miraculously prevented from suicide via overdose, and my husband and I can literally see God's hand on this boy. He is a survivor. He has seen hell, and now he lives to tell his story. I know pain, and even I cry when I sit with him and listen to him...and that is about all I have done for the last 48 hours. Despite what he has been through he has always sought after God.

Because of the curse of generational sin, you could say my friend never stood a chance. He has generations of drug addiction and abuse in his family. He was not born into a family that went to church, still, whenever he was invited he went...and he always wrestled with God afterwords. He also tells a story about being invited to a strip club. He didn't like them but he was pressured into going. Once there, he politely declined a lap dance, but was bought one anyway.

As the girl prepared to dance on his lap he refused to look at her but he did ask her why she chose to dance. He asked her if she felt degraded. He talked to her until her time was up. He never once looked at her, he just tried to talk her out of her occupation. His friends went back several nights later, and found out that she had quit dancing.

God has already used my friend, even while in the midst of his own addictions. Because of the generational sin in his family he has had to be the adult. He has grown up to fast and is much smarter than you would think he should be, given his circumstances. He has been blessed with great insight and sensitivity. He has self medicated because he has always seen this blessing as a curse. Insight and sensitivity do not get you very far in the "hood".

My husband and I have prayed over him, and spoken truth and life into him. We tell him the hand of God is upon him. He knows it and he feels it too. He wants more, but the one thing he is afraid to do is walk into a church building. In the past, when he has tried to pursue God in church, he has quickly been handed the proverbial "to do" list. He has been told, among other things, to change his wardrobe and his music habits.

He sees right through this attempt to make him a better-looking Christian and he resents it. He doubts that becoming softer on the eyes of the church members will suddenly add purpose and give meaning to his life. He has gone looking for community and acceptance and instead he has been given standards to conform to so that the church members can be more comfortable with his presence in their building.

I have sat and eaten with my drug addicted friend and have seen more decency in him in the last few days than I have seen in my years of eating with the myriad of "Christians" who attend "church". Even with his slew of problems he is not afraid to eat with sinners and convey to them enough about their potential that they walk away from degrading jobs that enslave them, and take away their dignity. If he can do this, why can't we?

We are sons and daughters of the Most High God, and my friend who has shot himself up with heroin non stop for the last three months gets it better than we do. He shoots up to numb himself from the pain of "getting it" because no one has cared enough about him to look away from his sin while still conveying to him his self worth as a human being created in the image of God.

Again, WHAT'S WRONG WITH US?

Why does this boy have the decency to do this for somebody else when he is not even being given that same decency by people claiming to love the very God that came down and showed us that the only way to love Him is by showing the sick of the world love?

I am done with calling this thing we do on Sunday's, church, until it grows up into the name it has taken on, and acts like it.