When Jesus Doesn’t Encourage…

I had a Facebook conversation with a student the other day about a variety of things that were going on in their life and how some of those things were not things they had planned or hoped to experience when they awoke that morning.  Awhile later I read a post from another student detailing the loneliness they sense at school when surrounded by thousands of people.  Then I started thinking about another student that doesn’t want to go through the process of rejection so they don’t allow anyone to get to know them at school and self-induce the “rejected” label.

So what do you say to these exclamations?

It seems to be a default response to yell “Jesus loves you” or “Jesus cares” before you can even process the rants you just ingested.  This must be a Pavlovian response that ministers/pastors are conditioned with in Bible college.  I’m not sure that response has ever moved me deeply when I’m down, but maybe I’m predisposed to believe it has greater power when I say it because the Holy Spirit should work more effectively and often through ministers.  Perhaps the fact that I get to speak on weekly basis to a captive audience is too much for whatever balances my ego.  When framed that way maybe it’s easier to understand why so many sermons are more history lesson than a testimony to the Gospel…it’s easier to talk about the Bible and theology than it is about what God is doing in your life.

Jesus was an interesting guy.  We refer to the “true God” side of Jesus often and it’s understandable because it shows that Jesus is different than us.  The “true God” truths, like “Jesus loves you”, “God has a plan”, and “God makes good out of bad situations”, are true and we know it because it is easy for us to see that when we reflect on our days and years.  While true, they rarely do anything to make me feel like Jesus actually cares or understands about the moment I’m living.  The “true God” Jesus I revere as the Almighty and God in the flesh (an amazing phrase in itself).

For me, I’m more intrigued by the “true man” of Jesus.  This is the Jesus with who I more easily relate.  And that makes sense since I’m much more acclimated to humanity than divinity.  I find comfort in knowing that Jesus didn’t look over Jerusalem in Matthew 9 and yell in a Rocky-escque manner “Jesus loves you” (in the third-person, of course) followed by someone yelling back “shut up!” (a la Coming to America).  All it says is that he had compassion on the people.

When I’m down I don’t need (or want for that matter) someone telling me to “step it up” or reminding me I’m loved.  When people are down, encouragement isn’t helpful…in fact, it’s infuriating.  They need encouragement to continue when they are doing well.  When they are down, they need someone to come alongside them and lift them up.  Compassion is a healing experience for the downtrodden.

Encourage those who are running.  Have compassion on those sitting alone.

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