The Lion and The Lamb

Last Friday, I decided to work from home, as it was going to be a slow and quiet day in the office, but forgot that I had a marketing meeting planned for the afternoon. So, I quickly improvised and invited the girl from marketing to meet me for coffee on the upper east side instead of in the office. Fortunately, we have a great relationship and she happens to live just a few blocks away. Perfect!

We meet and go to DTUT - a really fun coffee shop on the UES. We get our coffee and I think we are about to dive into planning our conference and going through our to-do lists, when she asks me how long she thinks we'll be here and how long I'll keep working. I give my usual answer, "I know God has us here for a reason, so we really take it a year at a time. If it were up to me, I'm not sure this would be somewhere I would raise a family, but it's not. We'll see what God has in store for us." At this time, I didn't know where she was spiritually, but I did know she was randomly invited to our church by another common friend for Easter, so I assume that she is another fellow "Southerner"in NY shopping for a good church. She then tells me that she just renewed her 1 year lease but still doesn't know why she is here. She feels like God is telling her to stay but she really is struggling with friends and isn't here for work and is truly searching for why she feels led to be in the City.

I give some encouragement of how lonely it can be in the City and that I feel blessed through the connections and vision we have through our church, and that's when the real point of our "meeting" was revealed. She said that she had been to our church a few times with a friend, but that she really didn't understand who this "Jesus" person is and why our Pastor always referred to Him and our sins. I took a few sips of my iced decaf sugar-free vanilla skim latte and prayed for the Holy Spirit to start speaking, because Shawna was SO not prepared for the direction this conversation was headed.

3 hours later, I realized how I was able to share with her who Jesus is and why He is so important in this story of our lives. That we are really only able to have a relationship with God through Him alone, otherwise we would just be checking legalistic boxes and feeling like we were good people - capable of making it on our own. We even got into Sin and where good and evil came from, and even why we have to talk about it so much in church. I mean - every theological discussion I've ever had came rushing through my brain and out of my mouth.

I brought up a popular "pastor/ motivational speaker" and said there are pastors and churches who tend to focus more on the power of positive thinking and the scriptures that only relate to "God is Love"; we need to help others and take care of ourselves to be better people. However, we lose the full picture when we don't talk of God's justness, His power, His wrath, and His overwhelming desire for us to be Holy. He is the Lion and the Lamb...and if we only focus on one of those figures - we miss the big picture, don't we?

I never thought my marketing meeting would turn into such a powerful conversation. We ended up sharing dinner that night together with David and Dan and had a great time! Walking home afterwards, I realized that God had truly ordained that conversation because it was in telling her who Jesus is and why God has her here in the City, that I was affirmed again why I am here. Funny how that happens isn't it? I'm not here for David, I'm not here for our church or a job or a cool City and fun memories. It's about conversations like this and people like her who are seeking and searching and just need someone to share with them about this "Jesus" person.

Let's not forget why we're here and let's not forget to share the "full" person of God in Jesus. Most people can accept God - it's the "Jesus" part that takes the extra step in faith - but how powerful that can be when you help someone "see" Him as he truly is...the Lion and the Lamb.