There are People Out There Who Need Jesus – For Real

My nephew graduated high school in north central California and our whole family went out for a week to celebrate. Things California has that south central Texas doesn’t have: cool summer weather, beaches AND mountains, In and Out Burger, and MC Hammer. We got to meet MC. For real. His son plays on my younger nephew’s baseball team. My brother-in-law is the coach. U can’t touch that.

Besides MC, (now a pastor along with other endeavors) and my nephew (whom we led to Christ two years ago) I am not sure if we encountered any other Christians. I’m not being judgmental or high and mighty. It was just an observation that hit this little Bible belt girl square between the eyes. There are people out there that don’t have a clue who Jesus really is and could care less. For real.

I didn’t think that was possible in America. My sister and brother-in-law and apparently none of their friends go to church. We spent an evening with two of my first cousins that I haven’t seen in perhaps ten years. One of them sends his daughter to a Catholic school and they unapologetically claim “non-religious” as their faith. When I tried to slip Jesus and what He means to me into the conversation, I got looks that ranged from “you are a fanatic” to blank stares that said (without saying) “I have absolutely no basis of reference for anything you are saying.” Needless to say, I have a heavy burden for my cousins, their children, my aunt and uncle and basically, the whole state of California.

I have several things to ponder concerning all this.
1) Would anyone know I am a Christian if we hung out some Saturday afternoon and we couldn’t talk about my job or my church? I hope so. I think so. I know in my head I filter everything, EVERYTHING, through my faith, through the Bible, through obedience to the Lord, but does Jesus come out in my words, in my actions, in my laughter, in my appearance to the world? For real?
2) As a song-writer, I am prompted to write songs full of truth, full of Jesus, full of life-giving light and hope and peace that aren’t for the church. At all. Songs that don’t have words like redemption, Lamb of God, and righteousness; songs that don’t talk about “how miserable I was before I met Jesus,” because they’re not – THEY’RE NOT – they’re happy and successful…for the time being; songs that reveal the character of God to a world that has no clue that God is personal, that God is reachable, that God is desirable. God commands us to sing a new song to Him, so, yes, I will still write songs of worship to praise the God I love. But I have a new objective to write Christian music for non-Christians that will make sense to them. Because what we say and how we say it doesn’t make sense to them at all. For real.
3) Since I grew up in the south with a church on every corner, in a family that went (and still does) Sunday morning, Sunday evening and to prayer meeting on Wednesday night, since my momma taught me how to worship, my step-dad is a pastor and my daddy says “thank You Lord” as a response to almost anything, since I work in a church, and all my friends go to church, and I really don’t have much of a life outside of church, for real, I don’t realize that there is a whole other world out there with absolutely no Jesus, no concern about their eternal destination, no apparent need for God in their day-to-day lives. What am I going to do about that? I know that within my ministry I’m doing exactly what God called me to do, but it’s not enough. I am compelled to tell about Jesus where it is uncomfortable, where it is unwanted, where it is not solicited to people who don’t even know they need Him. For real.

In his parachute-panted hip hop heyday, MC sang “Oh my Lord, thank You for blessing me.” For real – those are lyrics from “U Can’t Touch This.” MC knew Jesus even if he didn’t always show it. Just like the rest of us Bible belters. We don’t always show it. But we need to. For real.