Rhett:
So part of the course at the Missionary Training Center is being involved in an outreach. An outreach is essentially a ministry that is required by school : ) Not that “required” is the idea I want to convey, but the reason I mention it is because I find myself in a ministry (outreach) that I wouldn’t have thought of doing had I not been given a list to choose from. The experience has opened my eyes to people I have chosen to ignore in the past.
Superficially, the outreach I am in sounds pretty boring: I volunteer as a tutor in a school for struggling high school students. The goal, however, is to also build relationships with the kids so I can earn a place in their lives from which I can minister to them.
At first I found it difficult to relate with the kids. Not only did I have to overcome the student/teacher barrier between us, but I found I had some prejudices left over from my high school years. In school I hung out with the “Advanced Placement/loads of extracurriculars” kids that were grooming themselves for college. Our clique despised those “failing” kids who ditched every other day and would choose to party rather than graduate. Part of my reasoning was somewhat legitimate (I didn’t want them to bring me down), but I found at my outreach that I actually considered myself to be better than they were.
It is silly logic when you think about it. Romans 3 makes it absolutely clear that all of us are in the same boat, we are all selfish sinners. Then God comes along, declaring our debauch self to have died on the cross, He gives us a new life in Christ, and He places us on His right hand. Then we, standing on a pedestal which we don’t deserve to be on, look down at those below who have yet to believe, those who were just like us before God intervened, and we think “Ew, I hope one of them doesn’t touch me, they might make me dirty.” Hardly the love of Christ, huh?
I’ve never considered myself to be the “Holier than thou” type, but there it is. One more bit of proof that I need to be relying on Christ to be ministering through me rather than setting out on my own strength.
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