Called To Care


I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee and enjoying the morning paper. My daughter Tarah was only about 5 years old. She decided to start a lengthy conversation in the middle of an interesting article. I kept reading while smiling and nodding as if I was really listening to her. I thought I was getting away with it until she climbed up in my lap, took my face between her little hands and said, "you aren't listening to me". I assured her that I had heard every word. She then said, "then tell me what I said"! I was busted! I had demonstrated a common mistake among people who are called to care. I was hearing but I was not listening. What I was communicating without words was, "what you are saying is not important enough to give it my undivided attention". Another way to say it is, " I don't really care"!





Caring is of the utmost importance. Caring opens the door for the Holy Spirit to use us to enter a person's life with redemptive solutions. Howard Ridings was a man who had a great impact on my life. I was in my upper teens when I first met him. He came to our church once a year to preach a series of meetings. I can't remember any sermons he preached but two things stand out to me. First, he preached with such passion and power. Second, somehow he convinced me that he really cared about me. He would single me out to talk. He was 25 years my senior, old enough to be my father, yet he could connect with me. He seemed to always have time for me and I never felt in the least that I wasn't as important as him. One day I finally realized his secret. He would talk and he words were always directed to me and my life. He had this rare ability to talk for long periods of time and only talk about the other person. I can't remember him ever saying, "I care about you", but you just knew in your heart that he did.





As I think about Howard, I now know that he was exemplifying Jesus. Jesus, though the Messiah, was never too busy or distracted to spend time with people. The crowds loved Jesus and wanted to be with him. They didn't want to be with him because he was God. They wanted to be with him because he was a man, filled with the Holy Spirit, called and on an important mission, but still a man who saw them and cared for them. That demonstrated caring opened the door for a receptive heart in the people that created and atmosphere for miracles. In contrast, the Pharisees seemed to exemplify religious leadership that was too important, too busy and distracted to really care about the common man.





May the Lord help us care and demonstrate that care to others. After all, when you are gone, the sermons you have preached and the buildings you have built probably won't be remembered.