In the previous Dawn Breaker, I identified the importance of sharing the Gospel in pictorial language.  Studies indicate that people think in pictures.  It is the predominant way we remember and identify things of life.  There is one picture that is the most difficult for us to paint.  Yet, it is the picture most remembered by others about Christianity.  It is the picture others see through the changes that occur in our lives. 

  I have heard it said that some people would become followers of Christ except for what they see in those who proclaim to follow Christ.  For some people who say such a thing, it is an excuse to not deal with issues in their own lives.  Others are judging the Christian faith by bad experiences they have had with one or two persons.  Still others mistakenly believe that being a Christian means a person lives a perfect life, according to the observer’s definition of perfection.  All in all, the most impacting picture people see about the Gospel is you and me. 

   In II Corinthians, the Apostle Paul recognized the reality of faith transitions in our lives.  He had a sudden transformation, but he also realized that he did not “arrive” just because of his experience on the Damascus road.  God was continually molding the clay pot known as Paul, and Paul made himself available to be molded.  If we were alive at the time of Paul, I wonder what picture of Christ we would have? 

   I think of a person, now deceased, whom I have long held in my mind as a model of a follower of Christ.  He was not perfect.  In fact, he was a periodic alcoholic.  He was active in a church where I was the Youth Director.  His children were in the youth program.  They were a wonderful family.  Yet, about once a year he would disappear.  The minister of our congregation spent hours, sometimes days, helping the family find him.  His alcoholism was not a secret, which was part of what made his family unique.  Most families try to cover problems from the world and themselves.  They were a very open family.  He was a normal man with an extraordinary family.  I wish I could say that he has been a model of a Christian for me because he had a “Damascus Road” experience and stopped drinking.  That did happen for another person I know, but not for “Red.”  So far as I know, all of us in the church believed that, as bad as Red’s drinking problem was, it would have been much worse without the influence of Christ and His Body, the church. 

   As I think about it, maybe the real picture of the Gospel was in the grace filled love of a congregation for one of their families.

Dawn Breaker #70: God, may I receive people as though they were you . . . because they are.

"There are a number of guidelines I try to follow in life and ministry. I find that when I follow them, situations sometimes become like the rising of the sun.  There is a luminous glow turning to great light, and occasionally, inspiration.  When I don't follow these adopted guidelines, they sometimes become Don breakers, making life frustrating at best.   I do not suggest you should live by all the principles I choose for my life.  If they are helpful for you, make them your own.  They work for me."
                                                                                                                    Don Shelton