Before you can make great change, see great change, be great change, you must be ready.

Too often we ego stroke, guilt appease, wish the prettiest wishes. We all want to encounter Jesus as the gentle and meek homeless person who will accept our $10 bill and weep with gratitude, but that is rarely how such encounters go.

More often, those who need help don’t want help, those who need to heal don’t want to heal, those who need Jesus, deny Jesus. And what are we to do? We stand there, in the space between all of this, and feel, and wait, and suffer.

And this takes strength. And this takes courage. And this takes a deep sense of purpose and fortitude that cannot be gained through ego stroking or guilt appeasing or wishing the prettiest wish.

I believe we can develop the strength we need to encounter Jesus in those who refuse to be helped, refuse to be healed, refuse to see the living Christ when He stands before them, by preparing ourselves for the work ahead.

This is not done in community.

This is not done out loud and in public.

This is not done for all to see and hear and understand.

This work is done inside, and behind a closed door, in a quiet room, where the Son of Man may happen upon you down on bent knee, weeping for your sins and for the sins of all those who have come before you and all those who will come after you.

This work is done behind, and inside a secret place, in a dimly lit sanctuary, where the Good Shepard will come find you, a Lost Sheep, and heal you, and help you, and offer you the chance to accept His presence.

Are you ready for that?

For it is so much easier to point out the faults in others, so much easier to identify all the things that need saving in this “broken” and “hedonist” world we live in, but what of you? What of your sins and your shortcomings and your biases and your prejudices and your racism and your hurtful words and your misperceptions and your lack of faith and love and hope in the Risen God?

Encountering Christ in others is essential work, but I believe we must prepare ourselves for that work, by going inward, by seeing what waits for us inside and hidden away.

Start by healing yourself. Then work to heal others.

Start by accepting Christ’s grace inside yourself. Then work to spread Christ’s grace with others.

Is your heart ready?