People Don’t Care How Much You Know
Till They Know How Much You Care
I was waiting in line at a fast food restaurant and there was a young man and a young lady in front of me. The young man’s baggy gym shorts were completely below his...well, his bottom. Thankfully, he did have an athletic shirt that came down over the top of his baggy, low riding shorts. My first reaction was to think how disgusting it was and how crazy teenagers are to dress that way, etc, etc, etc. Quickly the Holy Spirit brought to my mind that Jesus would look on the young man with compassion. And you know, that is how Jesus would look at him.
In his book, Surprised By the Voice of God, Jack Deere talks about a witnessing experience he had on an airplane many years ago. He was a senior in College who loved apologetics, the part of Christian theology that specializes in intellectual arguments for the Christian faith. The young lady beside him was intelligent and not a Christian. “She has come to the right place,” he thought. “I’ll be able to shoot down all her arguments in short time.” An hour later he was exasperated that none of his arguments were working. So he switched gears and began to listening. She took the next 30 minutes to share her story and her struggles in life and Jack just kept listening. Then surprisingly she turned to him and said, “What do you think?” At that moment he felt the compassion of Jesus for her and he simply said to her, “Your problem is the same as mine—you are a sinner and you need a Savior.” With that she broke down sobbing saying, “You’re right, you’re absolutely right.” What his intellectual arguments could not do his simple statement could...a statement prompted by the Holy Spirit. Because he listened to her she began to see he cared.
Mr. Deere then made a statement in hindsight that was telling indeed. He said when he first started talking to her he was, “thinking of her as an adversary to be beaten rather than a lost person to be saved.” We miss the point in witnessing when we focus on trying to win an argument. Compassion takes a much different approach. Compassion seeks to understand. Pride seeks to win. Lost people are not trophies to win for display; they are not enemies we have to conquer. They are lost souls for whom Jesus died.
It really is true that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Jesus was compassionate. He really cared about people and they knew it. That’s what made Him so attractive to people. He was good, kind, gentle and merciful. Before He ever proclaimed Himself as the Messiah He would often do good to people. He would heal them, feed them or eat dinner with them before they came to trust in Him as Lord and Savior.
There is a place for apologetics. There are times the mind of an unsaved person needs to be challenged. But the most powerful witness we can have for Jesus is to approach people the way He did—with compassion. Compassion and care speak to the heart not just the mind and it is the “eyes of the heart” that must be opened by the Holy Spirit before anyone can be saved. Lord, give us hearts of compassion. And Lord, show your love and compassion to the young man with the low riding baggy gym shorts.
Pastor Dan
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