he who has eyes...

“At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”[Mark 10:22]

After about three hours of sitting next to one another without really acknowledging the other’s existence, we finally made eye contact as this older woman was working on a Sudoku. I had already completed that particular one in my copy of the in-flight magazine, so I offered any help I could. Seems fitting that this is about as far as I was willing to help her — completing a Sudoku.

Not five minutes into the conversation, she was inviting me to stay at her house north of Boise with her husband and two children who hadn’t grown up and moved away. Now that’s what we call hospitality. We got to talking about what we do and where we go to church. I told her about the Near West Vineyard and she told me about her LDS church.

It started there.

I wondered to myself what I would say to someone like her. Being from Chicago, I don’t meet many Mormons. I know how to talk about Jesus to the hurting, I know how to talk about Jesus to those gripped by sin, I even know how to talk about Jesus to Jewish people. I haven’t the slightest idea how to talk to someone who already knows Jesus and yet the Jesus they know is tainted by what I believe to be false doctrine — false enough that it is in my eyes heresy (a word I rarely throw out there except in mocking others use of it).

Here is a woman who by all intents and purposes is just like me, except probably more loving, more hospitable, more generous, possibly even more devout. And, she’s devoted to Jesus. How do I tell this woman that I think she is believing a lie? What do I do?

No really, I’m asking. What do I do?

I’m such a part of this post-modern what-is-right-for-you-might-not- be-right-for-me world that I fear that even though she believes falsities about the character and nature of God, the true identity of Jesus, and our place in the hierarchy of God’s Kingdom, I have no right to tell her otherwise. This is her life, it’s her faith, and what is right for me might not be right for her.

This isn’t how Jesus did it, though, with people who lived lives with an incorrect focus, with a false hope, and along a misguided path. Take, for instance, the rich young man found in Mark 10:17-31. Here, we find a man who has obeyed the Ten Commandments earnestly. He’s lived a life worthy of being a son of God. And, he wants to know how to inherit eternal life. He even comes to Jesus to ask. What more could you want?

Yet, Jesus (being one with God) knows his true heart and commands of him something in a very pointed manner. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” [Mark 10:21] At this, the man goes away sad, because he is very rich and doesn’t want to do this. He’s just chosen money over Jesus. He’s just chosen condemnation over eternal life. He’s just chosen legalism over relationship.

(A quick note: I just heard Tri Robinson speak at Vineyard Boise and he said that when you have someone firing only two cylinders [i.e. they truly believe in only two persons of the Trinity -- like say God and Jesus, but not the Spirit], the end result is legalism, every time. I liked his insight on this.)

Though this man is “good” through and through (at least by earthly standards), he chooses not to follow Jesus. He’s put his faith in something else, and Jesus will ultimately have no part of him.

Jesus didn’t look at this man, knowing his sin, and say, “Well, he’s really good otherwise, I couldn’t possibly hold this love of money thing against him. Besides, what’s right for me might not be right for him.” No, Jesus revealed exactly what this man’s sin was, and the man chose the sin over Christ.

Knowing people everywhere who are enslaved to their sins and choosing them over Jesus, what right do I have to act differently than Christ and shy away from confronting their sin? Yet, I know people who have chosen a life separate from the life that Jesus teaches is the only path to inherit the Kingdom (that is, through Him alone), and I will never tell them anything about their deceit because I believe that they are good people and I don’t have the right.

I can almost hear Jesus saying to me after I list all the things that I have done right in this world, “Go, confront the sin in the lives of the people you love and bring these people to me.” Of course, I will walk away sad.

After my flight landed, I went to my hotel in Salt Lake City for the night, then got up the next morning and went to Temple Square, where the LDS church is headquartered. The place was littered with people gardening the landscape, being a steward of the earth just as God commanded and serving humbly just as God commanded, and I saw them with eyes that were renewed with burden towards the lost.

These people are lost and they don’t even know it.

I can’t explain to you the weight on my heart while I walked around Temple Square praying over the buildings and the people, asking God to change it all and bring these people back to Him — the real Him. I’ve never really felt a burden for a particular people group before.

But, maybe this is God pointing out where He wants me to minister, who He wants me to bring to Him. God doesn’t make mistakes in your life. He brings you up just as He intends so that you will be able to advance His Kingdom is a specific way. I guess this is why I find myself being so white (seriously, check out Stuff White People Like — I’m described by over half of these things to a T). The Mormons in Salt Lake City are about the whitest people you know (with all due respect to The Whitest Kids U’Know). I’d fit right in.

So, maybe God is calling me to Salt Lake City. I think I’d be okay with that, because the city itself is just beautiful (as is evidenced by the first half of my pictures from day one of my trip). I at least feel the burden of God’s heart towards the Mormons who live there, which is certainly a start.