Reaching the Unclean

Sorry that I have been so slacking in posting, I had the week off, so I just tuned out the world anyway, I am back, feeling refreshed and a little inspired. I just finished reading "Rock Priest", and if you are unfamiliar with it, I recommend you find yourself a copy. I is just one guys testimony, but it really shows what God can do if we are willing to submit to Him.

One of the questions it raises is how do we reach the unreachable? How do we become the culture we want to reach, and still remain separate from said culture? These are some of the questions that I have been asking myself, so maybe that is why I liked the book so much. Anyway, I am supposed to be reaching out to hardcore kids and Umass, and the question is how do I do it? What are the symbols and thoughts that pervade the cultures I am supposed to love? And once I know that, how do I use their symbols to tell them of the Gospel effectively?

Well I think the first thing I need to do is figure out who I want to reach exactly. There are of course the hardcore kids, but UMass is huge and has so many different subcultures, that I feel like I need to narrow it down to a specific few or I would become overloaded very quickly.

I know that I want to reach out to the untouchables. Who those people are is up for debate, but I feel like part of them are the alcoholics and drug addicts and "Frat" guys. Now I know down South everyone is in a Fraternity, but at Umass it is about 1% of the population, and they are looked down upon by the rest. However, those people will use them for their parties and booze. (Sorry about the tangent, it is just important to know that "Frat guys" are on the outside here in Massachusetts.) These are the groups I have the most in common with, I think, since I was an alcoholic (that's right I was) and I was in a fraternity (Pi Lambda Phi, for those wondering).

The hard part about this ministry is that when I was drinking, I knew I was on the outside, but I don't think many others did, and this is the struggle. So much of my identity was wrapped up in what others thought about me that I didn't want to admit that I was on the outside. Now eventually I did, but there was a lot of pain first, and once I did Christ healed me, but up until that moment I was doing everything in my power to keep up the charade. Since this is how I was, I can only assume this is how they will be. This is why it is going to be challenging. How do you reach someone who desperately wants to be reached, but wants all those around to think he is not in need of what you are offering? How do you heal someone who is utterly broken, and knows it, but who has faked being well for so long it is all they know. How do you reach out to people whose whole identity is wrapped up in the image of happiness that they have falsely created?

Now I know that we all have built up fake images to show the outside world, but it is so much more with Alcoholics. They desperately want to be like everyone else. They desperately want to be liked. They hide their disease at all costs. I would say that by the end of their drinking career, be it through sobriety or death, they have no more identity except in the hope that others see them as normal. Now reaching these people means that at some level they admit that they are not in fact normal, and proclaim that they are broken to the world. This is the hump they need to get over. How do I help them traverse this road block?

The other obstacle is that most of the people I want to reach aren't quite alcoholics yet. When you are so broken that all you can do is drink, the fact that you are a drunk is evident to all, and you know that your cleverly devised plan to be seen as normal has failed. At this point there is either death or hope This is close to most people's bottoms. I have a heart for these people before they become so desolate. Looking back I had a problem that I knew about well before it ruined my life for a while, and desperately wanted to be reached out to, and to continue my path and appear as normal. I wanted to have a Christian walk beside me and keep me accountable, but I didn't want to have a drinking problem, and I definitely didn't think I needed to give up drinking just yet. This is where I want to help. I could identify with the alcoholic, but refused the label or the help.

That being said, I desperately wanted a way out. I wanted the Gospel, and no on was there to give it to me. I don' think that attacks on my lifestyle would have succeeded in changing me, but a relationship with a Christian would have helped, and a person to talk about God with would have helped me see that I needed help sooner than I did. At least this is what I think now.

So now the question is how do I reach these kids? They are out there, just begging to be found. I think that, like Jesus, I must go and find the lost sheep. They, most likely, are not going to come to me. Second I need to rely on God and His grace to a greater extent than I do now. Third, I think I need to start invading their culture. What does that mean exactly, well I have been kind of exited about going to the fraternities and talking with those guys, as well as hanging out late nights at Umass and seeing what happens. I will keep you updated.

His grace is sufficient, and that is all I really need to remember. He loves these "losers", and I pray that God would use me to reach them for Him.