The Invisible Line…
I love to follow baseball and especially at the close of September as pennant races heat up. I enjoy the thrill of the playoffs and how every pitch has so much weight and meaning – one swing could change the whole game. A few weeks ago the buzz was about Derek Jeter’s “performance” of being hit by the pitch. Earlier in the month a pitcher had thrown a pitch at a batter because of something that happened earlier in the game. Discussion and debate circled around these unwritten rules in baseball. They are not written down anywhere but everyone supposedly knows them.
It is like that when it comes to the invisible line. You know – that line that often keeps us from doing something courageous, risky, out of the ordinary or against the flow. It’s that line that produces the thought that often keeps us from stepping out in faith and living lovingly and boldly for Jesus. It’s not written anywhere but it’s there.
What line am I talking about? You know and these words have probably already gone through your head, “What will other people say or think?”
You feel led to raise your hands in worship but what-will-people-think?
You want to share with someone at school about Jesus but what-will-people-think?
You want to go over and approach your neighbor and invite them to church but what-will-people-think?
You want to go to a Bible study rather than a high school dance but what-will-people-think?
You’re in a group of people worshipping God and you feel the Spirit leading you to drop to your knees but what-will-people-think?
You want to tell others about Jesus but there’s so much junk from your past and what-will-people-think?
You’re with a group of friends and they are telling off-color jokes and you want to say something but what-will-people-think?
You want to take your walk and commitment to God more serious but what-will-people-think?
You want to go up for prayer following a service but what-will-people-think?
And the list could go on. Until we cross that line we will not be fully committed to following Jesus. In John 4 there is a woman who was most likely the talk of the town. She, as Jesus points out, has had five husbands and the one she is living with now is either someone she is just living with or someone else’s husband. She dealt daily with what people thought of her.
This is why we find her coming to the well at 6th hour – the heat of the day. No one else would be there and she would not have to deal with what people thought. She wouldn’t have to face the stares and the hushed whispers. She lived her life in fear of what people would think and say. That is until she met Jesus! As she encountered Jesus and realized who He was, everything changed. She crossed that invisible line. She no longer cared what people would say, what people would think or what people would do. All that mattered is she met Jesus.
If you look at the text it says:
(John 4:28-29) Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (NIV)
Did you catch that?! No more hiding out at the 6th hour. No more avoiding people. She went back to the town and started talking and sharing with the people about Jesus. That’s all that mattered. She even forgot her water jar!
It never crossed her mind, what the people would be saying or what they might be thinking. She could have thought, “Nobody is going to believe me- not with my reputation. I’ll just keep this to myself everyone will think I’m crazy. They’ll say it’s just a phase. They won’t believe it’s real.” Perhaps they did, but they were overridden by Jesus and her encounter with Him. She crossed that invisible line.
As a result, many Samaritans from that town came to believe in Jesus because her testimony! So what is God putting before you that the invisible line is keeping you from doing, experiencing, or sharing? When you meet Jesus nothing else matters. He knows everything about you- even the stuff that others don’t- and still loves you. In fact He knew all of that and died for you!
Have you crossed that invisible line? And who may run to Jesus because you crossed that invisible line? Who may come to know and believe in Jesus because you crossed that line? Could it be possible that through your testimony and crossing that line your Church was transformed or the whole town of Hamilton, Holland, or Overisel came to believe in Jesus! I imagine this outcome never crossed the Samaritan woman’s mind – but when we meet Jesus all that matters is Him.
Ask God for the faith and courage you need to cross that line today. If you met Him (meet Him), nothing and no-one else matters. Think of what God could do through you.
