Because they are different...

Because they are different...

Are you an odd-ball? Do you consider yourself different from others? Do you see yourself not fitting into the norm? Would you say "no", that you feel they are pretty normal and can fit in anywhere?

I remember a speaker we had where I had worked; she spoke at a ladies event about 10 years ago. She illustrated women today such as a bag lady, a prostitute, and other types of women that we probably would not be so willing to reach out to. She then compared them to women and situations in the Bible and showed how the Lord and other believers reached out to them.
John 13:34 (New International Version)
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another".
Romans 12:10 (New International Version)
"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves".
Ephesians 4:2 (New International Version)
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love".

I have worked in the Travel & Tourism industry for over 20 years now and some of this time was also in ministry serving as well. This industry seems to lend to some strange characters coming through your door. If you watch some of your co-workers or other people in a service position, when someone who looks different, smells different, talks different or walks different is around, people seem to scatter. Why is this, why do we look the other way? If the Lord reached out a hand and a kind word to the odd-ball people, are we not to do the same. If our example comes from the scriptures and from the Lord...why are we not following this? I think we forget that God created every living person and who are we to not see them as God's creation, and to see them as only someone different.

Something happened to me at work yesterday and I could not seem to get anyone to help me with a "strange person". In the end the Lord took over and the situation and it was taken care of. My heart went out to this person. Who are they, why are they so different and why would no one helping me?

Sisters in Christ...if you have never felt the pains of feeling different or not in the norm, today I ask you to pray that God would place you in one situation today to remind you of how this feels. Once you have felt this discomfort, pain and loneliness that some others feel all the time, and then reach out to someone that you normally would not.

Is it not our mission to reach everyone the Lord has created with his Love?

John 3:16 (New International Version)
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life".
Lynn W