Life Lessons #1

Since being on reading week and spending some time with people outside of the vacinity of the Downtown Eastside, I've caught myself saying several times: "One of the big lessons that I have learnt this year has been..."
So I thought that it might be wise to actually write down some of these big life lessons, to see, in hindsight, what God has been teaching me and bringing me through.

Big life lesson #1 - The Importance of Listening
Most Christians who are really excited about getting into mission, whatever that may look like, usually want the world to know what they know. Now this is not a bad thing in it of itself, and I would pressume it to be quite natural. When you are passionate about something, it's hard to keep it inside.
But what I've found is that the times I feel most like Jesus (allowing Him to live through me) is when I am simply listening. Christians are notorious for trying to push their ideals, morals, ways of life, and doctrine on others. When I came here at the beginning of the year, I wanted desperately to help people. To show them what to do, teach them what I know, share the gems of a successful life. How quickly God humbled me, and I am grateful for that.
Everyone has a story. Something to say. To share. We, as the body of Christ, need to be good listeners.
There's this great quote from Fight Club, that I'll have to paraphrase because I don't have the film with me, but essentially here's the gist - The two main characters are at 'group' for people with cancer (despite the fact that neither of them have cancer). When asked why they are there they said "When people think you're dying they really listen to you rather than waiting for their turn to talk".
If we believe that people are trapped in this culture of death - whether it be drugs, materialism, sex addictions, the culture of cool ... - we need to be really listening to them rather than just waiting for our turn to talk; our turn to give them the gospel shot, to bring them to the 'other side'.
So, in short, I've learnt the importance of listening.

These life lessons don't seem to be incredibly inventive. In fact, most of them seem pretty mundane, but the lesson lies in the practice of these lessons.

Grace to you,