It was the fleeting beauty of early morning mist on marshy land as the sun broke over the horizon. When you walk through it, your skin becomes moist. It gets all over you, in a very good sort of way. Scientists say mist is what happens when something warm and moist comes in contact with surfaces that are much cooler. Mist is thinner than fog, it’s more transparent, it blankets whatever it contacts with a moisture that seems to come out of nowhere, and then quickly vanishes.
God is continually speaking through His creation, even through the August morning mist. And I was sensing a confirming word: “This is your life. This is everyone’e life. Time flies so quickly. Think about it: how did we get to the end of summer so quickly—weren’t you just shoveling snow off the driveway yesterday? Make the most of each day, each opportunity. ‘What is your life, after all? For you are like a mist that appears for a brief time and then vanishes.’ (James 4:14). So, blanket wherever you go like this mist. Keep bringing My warmth to the cold of the world around you. Keep being salt. Keep being light.”
Wherever you go?
Like many believers, I grew up in a Christian environment where if not spoken out loud, it was implied that just about everything in your life, except for your obligations, was to be centered around church. Friends. Music. Activities. All certainly helpful for growth and encouragement and discipleship, and I am grateful to this day for the fruit of all that. But there was also this sense that the outside world had become a “them” and a “that” and to have nothing to do with it anymore. Healthy discipleship cautions like “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2) often got turned on their head to imply—stay away, it’s safer in your Christian bubble. The idea of being “in the world but not of it” felt a bit self-centered, that we’re stuck in this place for now but hold on because Jesus is coming soon to take us Home.
And He is!
But not that way. Because things Jesus really said…
“I’m not asking that You take them out of the world but that You guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. Make them holy —consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way that You gave Me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world.”—John 17:15-18, Message
In some ways, I found it was easier and safer to live in that all-Christian, all-the-time bubble. It’s a lot harder to be the kind of penetrating mist Jesus is praying for us to be as we enjoy connecting with old friends who do not know Him (yet) and with common interests, holding on to uncompromising convictions and Truth (like Romans 12:2) while walking in love and not judgment and continually carrying the fragrance of Jesus wherever we go. But it’s the right way.
For some reason, it’s taken me several decades to feel safe about making a misty-eyed U-turn on this way of thinking—saturating, blanketing, being transparent—both inside and especially outside my church’s wonderful walls. But thank God, it is so. And it is never too late. To be continued…
"I've got the little Bible magnets on my refrigerator door
And a welcome mat to bless you before you walk across my floor
I've got a Jesus bumper sticker
And the outline of a fish stuck on my car
And even though this stuff's all well and good,
I cannot help but ask myself
What about the change?
What about the difference?
What about the grace?
What about forgiveness?
What about a life that's showing
I'm undergoing the change?"
—The Change, by Steven Curtis Chapman
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