Holy Now: How to Be Christ's Presence Where You LiveSample

We can sometimes find ourselves looking for others to take the initiative to transform some part of our community. We have our reasons for holding back, for being tired, for waiting for someone else to care more and make it happen.

But Jesus has called us to be holy now, to be proximate, to put our gifts into practice with the people of God around us such that those in our schools and neighborhoods experience the holy caring of Christ through our words and works.

The ways of the world can carelessly toss us about, like a boat caught up in stormy waves, blowing our families and friends about, confusing us about what is real and true, deceiving us about what and who matters most.

Sometimes the most caring thing we can do as Christians in our neighborhoods and schools, churches and YMCA is be fully present, to speak the truth in love, to be full of light to each person in front of us, to do our part to sensitively build people up in generosity and wisdom.

You’d like to think that anybody would do this. But our culture often pits people against each other, we get hurt easily and hold grudges stubbornly, we judge people unfairly, and then avoid anyone who is too different from us.

You can easily see how a community could start to crumble, how the foundations of a neighborhood could corrode. Entropy is not just a physical reality of our existence, it is a social and spiritual reality as well: for homes and neighborhoods, for societies and nations.

What does it take to resist the powerful forces which seek to pull people apart, that stoke envious rivalries between us, that confuse us with half-truths, that sow seeds of deceit and doubt?

Choosing to actually care for the people around you breaks the cycle of social entropy, it undermines rivalries, it undoes cynical envy, it softens the hardened hearts of those who look away.

But where does the vision and power and desire to do this come from? As we let our true self be cared for by Christ, as we grow up in maturity under the caring presence of Christ through others, our capacity to care in the world exponentially expands.

The need for God’s people to be holy now is evident. Let’s use the grace we’ve been given to care always, everywhere, with everyone.