“No money, no honey” shrugged a tired, weathered figure.

Bart’s complaint wasn’t about the lack of romance in his life. Although I’m sure he could have used a female companion, that’s not what was burdening him at the moment. He went on to explain, in his broken English, “have nothing, nobody wants you. Everyone does this...” he swatted as if to shoo away a fly. He continued to describe how because of the complete non-existence of anything valuable in his life, it was hard to win anyone’s respect or companionship. When you have nothing, he reasoned, nobody wants to have anything to do with you, it even seems as though everybody prefers that you were not around.

Quite honestly, had I randomly bumped into Bart on the street not knowing him, I would have brushed him off as a drunken criminal loser. I would have assumed a number of negative things about him, and consequently I would have probably preferred to not be bothered with him had he approached me for any reason. I would likely hope and pray that the language barrier would make it easier to avoid him. In fact, this may very well have happened at some point. I know that sounds pretty awful, especially since I like to portray an image of non-judgmental, compassionate love. But it is the truth. He just wouldn’t have seemed to be worth my time.

Few have the patience to deal with him on any level much less hire him; his English can be a chore to decipher especially through his Ukrainian accent, plus he can barely see.  Although he may not be hideous, when you factor in his permanently sun drenched skin, his one peculiar-sometimes grotesque- looking eye,  and his over worn clothing, you might see how the average person wouldn’t care to give him the time of day. He walks into the center alone most of the time, and he leaves alone. When I see him on the street he is alone as well.

No money, no honey.

In a city like Chicago one can not help but overlook people, sometimes in massive quantities. But how often has that become an excuse for simply avoiding people? Regardless of where we live, who are those people we have dismissed as unworthy of our time or compassion? Maybe it is that unruly student. It could be that filthy panhandler outside the store. Maybe it is a bland coworker.In any case, I believe most of us, from time to time, will size up others and conclude that they are just not worth bothering with.

Christ befriended us when all we had to offer him was our screwed up hearts. Christ has no need for anything we can offer Him.There is nothing we can offer Him that is of any worth to Him, unless He attributes worth to it. Yet not only does He love us, He suffered so that we can be in perfect communion with Him. Despite our destitute impoverished souls, He wants to make us His bride…His “honey”.

For some odd reason, He thinks I am worth something incredible. And, despite popular opinion, Bart is worth something incredible as well.

If the Lord God, in all of His Holiness and Glory finds us worthwhile, who are we to consider anyone among us not worthwhile? If Christ went out of His way to reconcile us to Himself, where do we get off avoiding each other for the sake of convenience, comfort, pride, or reputation?

It is very common in our society to size up other people based solely on what they have to offer us. In light of God's wondrous mercy demonstrated through Christ Jesus, let's not allow this mentality to infiltrate our Christian walk.

Moving keeps sounding better and better. The possibilities are endless…sort of. Once we get past those tiny humps of money, transportation, pets, housing, storage, friends and family, we could go anywhere, anywhere at all!

This much I know: I should be out of my element. But how much so? Should I move to the middle of the desert? Should I hit the ‘burbs? Should I find a shack tucked away somewhere in the majestic, forest-ful, hilly, all natural grandeur of some nook in Montana?

Or is another major city good enough? New York just seems like it would be all the things I don’t like about this city all concentrated into an over-packed container. There are other east coast cities that intrigue me, but if I’m gonna go somewhere, I would love to get away from brutal winters. Florida is too humid, and then take into account hurricane season…yeah, no thanks.

It would also help to go somewhere where I know people. I know folks in Portland, but from the way people describe it, it sounds like a giant hipster fest. But if it isn’t really that bad, it seems like a place where I would be very comfortable, probably too comfortable. But maybe not.

I know people in Texas. But I voted for Obama, I don’t like guns, I don’t like war, I don’t like oil,I think gays should be allowed to marry, and I never rode a horse.

I know people in Mississippi. Some of the same issues I just mentioned and I really don’t know that many people there…

But the south could definitely give me some new experiences and different perspectives.

Oh, and the Midwest. Kenosha was cute. Carlock was endearing. Detroit…I might as well move to a 3rd world country. Of course, I shouldn’t exclude that as an option either. Minneapolis… okay all of the things I don’t like about here that aren’t jam packed into New York, they must get dumped in Minneapolis. Ohio has some nice places, Akron was neat. I probably know more people in Ohio than I even realize.

I liked what I saw of Colorado. I sorta know a few people there.

California…ah…now that’s what I like to hear.

LA, San Diego, San Francisco,Santa Barbara, the desert, the mountains, everything else you can imagine...

And that’s assuming I stay in the states.

Mexico would be wonderful. The UK is intriguing. Canada, eh, it could be alright I suppose.  

Kenosha was cute.

One thing to consider… should this be a time of retreat and spiritual growth, as in a break from active ministry involvement and busy-ness? Or should I be pursuing a place where I can serve in ministry and/or be actively involved in a community? I guess I’ve always assumed the latter would be my reason for going anywhere, but the first sounds enticing. Maybe the two can somehow be merged.

Within the past few years, books such as Barna's "unChristian" have paved the way for campaigns of critique in the Evangelical Christian world with statistics,studies and calls to reclaim Christianity. Much of this critique seems to point to the idea that Christianity has failed in one way or another, especially when it comes to how we have represented Christ and His message.

I've noticed that there are still many similar movements popping up, all with the purpose to restore Christianity back to truth, and all attempting to salvage the tarnished, despised image of the Christian Church. Some say we need to offer more love and acceptance. Others say we need better teaching regarding the atonement. Still others insist that we need to become more familiar with the secular world. Church needs to be smaller, Church needs to be called something other than Church, Church shouldn't have sermons...and on goes the list of solutions.

Book after book, study after study, page after page…all describing the embarrassing reputation we’ve gained in the world around us. Revealing all of the not-so flattering things people think of when they think of Christianity, all of the ways we have been getting it wrong, and how to make it right.

And I, like many, have read this information and often thought to myself “wow this is messed up. We(Christians)should do something about this.” In fact, if you look throughout my blogs you will definitely see strong influences of this movement (although I must point out I blogged much of that before ever reading any of those studies.)

Now, I have no problem with the research groups like Barna have done. I think it is extremely important to know what the world around us thinks about Christianity. I also think it is just as important to know what those who consider themselves Christians think about Christianity and the secular world. I also appreciate those who want to approach Christianity with a fresh, bold zeal and spark the Church into radical Christian servitude. But my concern isn’t with the information or it’s presentation, it is more with our reaction to the information.

Consider this: the Barna-esque movement has also sparked a growing protest against the marketing and commodifying of Christianity and the Gospel. Ironically, the immediate reaction to these studies is a concern that Christianity has a plummeting image, and so we need to improve that image so that more people will be attracted to Christianity.

In other words,  we have this product called the gospel of Christ, and it has suffered from poor marketing and an unattractive image. We need to find positive ways to market our product so that people will be more willing to buy it.

So here's what I'm getting at: at what point does this all turn into nothing more than seeking the approval of the world, thus dodging Christ’s promise of persecution, mockery and suffering for the cause of the Gospel? Where can we find the balance between "they will know we are Christians by our love" and "do not be surprised if the world hates you"?

When the world says we are hateful, we can scramble to find ways to come off as less hateful, or we can take it as a sign that the message of Christ is in fact working powerfully and encountering the natural resistance it should face from an unbelieving world. If the world calls us judgmental, we can shy away from calling sin sin, or we can consider such accusations to be symptomatic of opposition to the Spirit's conviction.

Has this recent wave of scrutinizing Christianity gone too far? Is the world’s critique of us really an accurate way of determining if we are appropriately carrying out Christ’s mission? Do you think these movements lead to watered-down Christianity, or is Christianity really in need of a revolution?