People, Not Projects

@audreycfrank

I love you Audrey jaan! Where are you?

The text popped up on my screen as I searched for the pastor’s phone number. I was in high crisis mode, standing by a childhood friend in need during a tragic loss. My sweet Muslim friend Hunoon was looking for me and I had forgotten in the rush of emergency to let her know I couldn’t come by today.

I had to go out of town to comfort a friend but I’ll call you as soon as I get back!

Three days later, Hunoon and I sat together over hot cups of spicy tea while I told her about the past four terrible days of mourning. Her eyes glistening with tears, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with one hand as she took mine in the other.

I was not used to being on this side of comfort with my Muslim friend. In fact, I was embarrassed to grieve in front of her. She had experienced unimaginable loss. Incessant bombing of her city in Afghanistan had destroyed her childhood home and thousands of others. More than a dozen family members, adults, and children had been killed in the war.

I was with her the day she waited twelve excruciating hours to hear from her mother and sisters after a bomb blast in their neighborhood. The call finally came, and we wept tears of relief to know they had survived. Their arms and faces were peppered with shards of embedded glass, but they were alive.

I remember sitting in silence, listening, comforting without words as my hand firmly held hers. I was unable to relate her experience to anything at all in my own. Words, even true ones, seemed ridiculous at such a time.

Now I sat across with her as she held my hand and offered murmurings of comfort and assurance to me. Sympathy flowed forth from her like a river, and for a moment I felt ashamed. I know the assurance of heaven in the face of death, and she does not yet. But here she was, pouring forth her love and comfort unconditionally to me.

I was no longer the messenger with Good News rushing to offer it up to my lost Muslim friend. I was not the good and honorable woman of the Book (Muslims respectfully call devout followers of Jesus “People of the Book”) trying so hard to convince my Muslim friend that she needs the Messiah. I was not sitting there consumed with filing my friend’s lack with what I had.

I was a broken, grieving woman, sitting with a trusted friend who loved me.

We must treat our friends, all of them, like people. Not projects.

Moreso, we must allow ourselves to receive as well as give to the ones in need around us. They have so much to give if we will sit in the quiet a minute and let them.

We are not the saviors of the world. There is only One and His name is Jesus. We are broken and imperfect vessels, and we get chipped, cracked, and leaky. Sometimes life deals such a blow we tip over and empty out.

God refills us in many different ways. One is through taking the risk to let our Muslim friends truly see us without an arsenal of answers and zealous platitudes. When we allow them to share our pain, we also allow them to see our faith in the True Comforter and Provider, the One who is our Strength, the Shepherd who leaves the 99 to rescue the lamb who is hurting.

The Messiah Jesus Christ is perhaps most tenderly and poignantly seen when we allow others to see Him draw near to us when we are #suffering. #discipleship Click To Tweet

But evangelism was not my focus as I sat with Hunoon that day. I was hurting, and I chose to let my friend inside my pain. We sat for a long time in the silence that is strengthened by the presence of a good friend.

The silence of suffering together created a megaphone for the Words of Truth from the Bible that would come later in countless conversations about the Messiah. Silence at the right time can be like rich soil prepared for the seeds of Truth we have ready and waiting to sow.

Don’t be in such a hurry to fill the quietness. Noise can rob us of many gifts. The flowers stretch and grow in the silence of the dawn, their buds reaching toward the sun as it rises. And at the right time, they burst forth in all their blossoming glory, releasing their fragrance.

Ministry to anyone requires times of stillness and times of spoken words. Discerning the right time for each is much easier when we allow ourselves to give and receive. 

We are called to make disciples of people, not tackle them like projects to be completed. #discipleship #trust Click To Tweet

Vulnerability can open the door for the deepest discipleship.

Trust the Lord who has brought you together and who knows the story He is writing in both of your lives.