Lost

This weekend I was in a very small town with 2 friends and none of us were familiar with the area. We were leaving a local restaurant and heading to a church. We were told it was 5 minutes away. It was 6:50. We made it into church at 7:40. Did we break down? Did we stop to help someone? Did we make a pit stop for dessert and coffee? No to all of these. We got lost. Going in a straight line. With 2 GPS systems.

"Wow" is what I'm sure you're thinking. Rightfully so- that is totally deserving of a wow. I actually would not have thought it was possible had I not been in the car. How can you get lost going in a straight line? Well first you don't go in a straight line. You arbitrarily turn and then turn again, and then turn around. Then you ask people walking for directions and they tell you they don't live there. Really? Who comes to Moultrie on vacation? Then you drive and turn some more. Then ask someone else for directions. It all comes down to bad Intel.
First we didn't research ahead of time to know where we were going and we had to rely on locals for directions. Now every person we asked truly believed they knew where that church was and how to get us there. Ironically- the lady digging through the trash for lottery tickets is the only one who sent us the right way.
I see this all around the world. People are searching for direction, looking for the truth. We, the church, should be the "local" authorities on Truth and not just point people to him but introduce them. Sadly, this is not happening. People are getting bad intel. They are running in circles and everywhere they turn is more misinformation. We misinform by misrepresenting. When i was in Guatemala the missionary showed us one of the few evangelical churches in the city, then he told us a young girl in a wheelchair fro one of the local villages used to attend church there. Until the Pastor told her to stop coming because she was a distraction. In her wheelchair. To her, this man represents God. If he thinks she is taking up valuable space in his church and needs to go away- what does this say about God?
I want to run to this girl and hold her and tell her my God is not like that man- He would be pulling her out of that wheelchair to dance. He would laugh with her and love her and heal her. She is precious to Him and He never wants her out of His presence. And I would like to scream at this pastor. How dare he! But then I know I am just like this pastor- broken and afraid. Maybe he's embarrassed that he cannot offer her the healing Christ died for or maybe he really does believe he is too busy to help the sick. I don't know but I know I have misrepresented Christ more often than I have done Him justice. I cannot judge his actions or his heart but I can weep over the hurt of the girl and the man- and the God who wants to heal them both- but they don't understand who He is or what He came to do.
We need good directions so we can give good direction. We have to be healed ourself before we can offer healing to someone else. To say we've heard God can do mighty things is great- but to say He has done mighty things for us is believable. Suddenly we are credible and not just good storytellers. We don't need a GPS, we need an encounter. And you never know- sometimes those encounters come in the most unlikely places or people. Even a lady digging through the trash can point you in the right direction sometimes.