Lets face it ladies, Jesus got his hands dirty…and his feet, but that might be because they didn’t have cotton socks and Nike’s back then. Mary saw the dirty feet of Jesus differently than we might think.

There’s something very unique about Jesus that I have been getting to know more each day. He didn’t make people feel like they were guinea pigs for his ‘discipleship ministry’.

He never spoke to them, or about them, as if they were his latest ‘soul winning project’.

He called them friends.

He didn’t tear them down to shreds, push their hearts into the dirt, or belittle them publicly.

He embraced them.

My husband and I have been in the ‘rescue ministry’ for over a decade now. In fact, we’re approaching 20 years in ministry.

We were at Costco about a month ago when his parents were in town. A man approached us and gave my husband a huge bear hug, shook his hand rapidly, smiled huge and said, “Scott! Do you remember me??? You helped me so much! I miss you!”

This is a man who came to the in-home rescue program we once worked at.

He wasn’t embarrassed to approach us. He remembered us and was thrilled to see us.

After a sweet conversation and swap of phone numbers he departed with another huge bear hug and I stood there with tears streaming down my face.

We were so honored and deeply touched that this man considers us friends… not ‘certified counselors’. Not that being a certified counselor is a bad thing. I’m just meaning that he didn’t view us as some stuffy, nose up in the air, office people who have some kind of check list of how many people we spoke to about Jesus.

We have always interacted with people we serve, as friends. We are not in ministry to have people serve us, we are to serve them and through ministry we have made and built some very special friendships.

But some folks might see our day to day ministering and think we are getting “too dirty” or even venturing down a “slippery slope”.

I would imagine the Pharisees and their followers thought the same thing about Jesus.

You know… with all those sinners and gluttons he spent so much time with and lets not forget about those filthy fishermen. {sarcasm}

But Jesus never made them to feel dirty. He didn’t condemn them.

He welcomed them without “getting dirty”.

A lot of times we tend to worry about what others might think if they see us interacting with “you know who” in the community. We fret about being seen leaving a comment on “her” blog. Maybe our thinking has become too introverted to be ‘little Christ’s’ to the world.

Maggie mentioned something to me on Twitter the other day about our communication being a miracle. I had to think about that. She elbaorated a bit for me when she explained that  ”how vastly different we all are: upbringing, traits, learning styles, life experiences”.. that coming to understand one another is a miracle. I see what she means.

Just look at how many times people in the bible were confused about what Jesus was saying. Some folks got it, some didn’t. So why was that? He mentioned something paradoxical about how his message was only for those with ‘ears to hear’. I started thinking about this and looking back on our own experience in rescue ministry and it dawned on me that Jesus also had ‘ears to hear’.

Lets look at the definition for paradox:

a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

Ann Voskamp calls it the ‘upside down kingdom’.

Ministering to some people requires ears to hear…to hear their hearts. Discovering how to relate to people in some lifestyles calls for a paradoxical type of thinking and speaking. It’s totally out of the norm.

What I say to someone on the streets who is on drugs may not sound like the ‘right words’ to a church member who is listening in on the conversation. I have to speak in terms the addict will understand. As a matter of fact, the church member might be offended at the conversation because they have not been appointed to this task. Unless you have gone to a third world country to live among the missions there, you may not understand why they run their ministries the way they do. But you trust them to share the Gospel, because you know they went through training to be a missionary to that specific country.

Would you approach that missionary on the country road near the villages and reprimand them for not ‘presenting the Gospel correctly’? That would be like a kindergartner telling a college professor how to teach physics. No offense my friends.

Some ministries require more discernment and experience. Not only do people on the listening end need to have ‘ears to hear’… (and that is the job of the Holy Spirit to tend to), but we also need to have ‘ears to hear’ to be able to understand the hearts of the people and which words strung together make sense to them.

But what if those words strung together that they do understand…causes other Christians to accuse you of being on that slippery slope? Now you’re put in a position of fretting about their walk, your walk, and the life of the one God called you to love.

So how does one do that which they are anointed to do and keep all these plates balanced and spinning?

How do we minister to our kids, neighbors, folks in your city, people in your church, and online?

How can Christians be among the ‘filthy’ without sliding down the slippery slope?

If our hearts are not in tune with the Spirit, walking by faith, then these kinds of questions will dominate and cloud our thinking. We need to have our thinking renewed to be able to enter into the path that he is calling us to. We need to think outside the box and enter the realm of the paradox and start with having ears to hear.

Will you join me in the upcoming weeks as I share the steps I’ve taken into life in the paradox? Walk with me as I share how dirty feet are seen as beautiful.

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