When I Wake Up, I'm Afraid Somebody Else Might Take My Place

                “When I wake up, I’m afraid that somebody else might take my place.” Listen to this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrWwtU7iyl0   I think it’s the soundtrack going on deep inside the subconscious of the people we interact with every day.  We are all fallen human beings.  If it doesn’t move you to tears knowing this is what is going on underneath in the people you interact with, you are not human. We carry the scars of our childhood throughout our whole lives.  We want to know we matter to someone.  We want to know someone else in this world will get outside themselves for a minute and listen to our soundtrack. When you are a preacher, and you are preaching to the congregation, or a spiritual writer, and you are writing to your audience, I think this is the soundtrack of the subconscious in the people listening to you or reading the tripe you write.  It’s the song of the deep need in every human being to know they matter to someone else.  When I am out at the gas station smoking, and I watch people coming in and going out, I look into their eyes when they look at me in the car.  And if they don’t look away, I catch a glimpse of their humanity. I smile at them and know we share this soundtrack in our subconscious.  It has moved me to tears at times, after they turn away and walk inside. If we could remember that this is the kind of stuff going on underneath in the people we interact with every day, what would that do to our interactions with them?

                This song sums up the deep need to know that our lives matter.  That, if we weren’t ever born, the world would miss us.  It’s the reason I think people commit suicide: a switch has flipped in their neurons leading to a path of associations that spiral down to a place of emptiness.  It is a place where they think that they don’t matter to anyone. I know. I’ve been there.

                It is the balm of the gospel that speaks to this deep need.  People mattered to Jesus.  We are to be like him. “You will do even greater things than these.” It’s really easy. We are to turn off the Tv, silence our phones, take them off the kitchen table when we’re having dinner with our significant other and listen to them. When my wife speaks to me and needles a barb into my heart because she doesn’t realize that something she said goes right to a core wound from my childhood, what would it do to my response to know somewhere deep inside her this soundtrack is playing.  “When I wake up, I’m afraid that somebody else might take my place.”  What would you say to someone who is dying of cancer who wants to know if anyone will miss them?   Would you say, “I don’t have time for you right now, I’m late to get to work?”  No. Someone else can’t take your place.

                Our western society is so far from what matters.  It tries to make us frantic consumers, going from one purchase to another, shopping online for the things we need and want.  Buying food or toilet paper and laptops.  We are trying to fill the hole in our heart that God put there so we can identify with people in need. And what is lost is the time to interact with the people around us.  Do something for me.  If you’ve read this, try not buying anything for one day.  It is harder than you think.  And instead, take those few minutes to stop someone who is walking past you, and say, “Hi, how’s it going?” Or, “What do you think of this weather?”   Here’s one that will get them talking, “Do you have any kids? How are they doing?” I really think helping people in need is the whole reason we are here. Everyone needs help.  And we are here to give it. Because it’s Christmas, try the following:

                Some of the people who are most in need in the United States are standing right in front of us on every street corner downtown begging for change in the cold weather. This is love: Take your kids, go to Target and buy a blanket.  Now drive downtown in your 20,000$ car and find someone begging for change on the street corner.  Give them the blanket, or better yet have your kid hand it to them.  Now say, “Here you go.  Merry Christmas. You matter to me.” Ask them how they are doing.  And listen. Maybe buy them lunch.

Now stop dogging Christians, because, my friend, no matter what you believe, you just became one. 

                You have followed the teachings of Jesus and gotten close to God. If you make a habit of it, your heart has realized its purpose. You just got saved.  You're not perfect. You're human. You are free to love and know that God loves you the same way.  You have just realized what I think is the whole point of our existence: to love, however poorly we do it. It doesn't matter. When you do things like this, they are an outward expression that your soul has turned. Your brain has communicated the reason for existence to your heart, and your heart has turned that outward toward others. A shift has happened or will happen or is happening in your heart.  There are no clocks in the kingdom.  It has happened and will happen and is happening. Jesus went before you to prepare a room in our Father's house.  You just arrived.  Welcome home. You have no idea how happy it makes me to see you here.  See you when I get there.
               If you see someone in need, and it moves you, the tug on your heart is Jesus in you reaching out to Jesus in the people you meet. This is Matthew 25.  It is real.  It is the core of the Gospel.  It is the reason Jesus came: so we could all become like Jesus and save each other.  And people who are truly in need are the people it is easiest to love on. They won't refuse it. The concrete need for love is at the surface.  It is not buried under the self-delusion that we all wear that says we are ok on our own. “31 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.’"  The only difference between the sheep and the goats is that one group got outside themselves for a minute and thought about others, then did something about it.  And they made this a way of life.

When you wake up, don’t be afraid.  Nobody else can take your place.  You have work to do that no one else can do.  You have people to save who no one else can reach.  This is Christmas.  This is the whole point. Go be a Christian. Buy a blanket for someone and celebrate it.  I’ll see you at Target today.  We’ll talk about it in heaven.