What Are We Going to Do?

I'll admit it. I hate crime. I'm not real friendly with criminals until they get behind bars either. But in the midst of those two words, crime and criminals, is an age old question, "How do we keep people from doing crime and becoming criminals?" As a Christ follower, my solution is the Gospel of Jesus. If you follow Him and live by the words written in red, crime won't become a part of your life. That's a bit simplistic, but it is true that if one gives their life over to Jesus, the other stuff more than likely won't have room to operate. There are certainly many stories of people who have gone astray, but for the most part, if you really are a child of God, you will be too busy living out a life that reflects the love of Christ, instead of the love of other peoples' stuff.

So what do we do? First we stay. No more picking up and leaving. No more flight. Second we get to know our neighbors...not just the ones next door, but the ones down the street. The ones with the noisy kids and the loud cars. Third, we let them know we exist and acknowledge they do as well. Fourth, we find reasons to go over to their home. And fifth, we invite. They need to know why you are different. They need to know Jesus. Maybe you will need to give them a ride. I don't know, there may be more steps, but at least do these five. I'm tired of using the word neighborhood to explain what is going downhill in our city. It is people. Folks just like you and me. For some reason some of our neighbors and/or their kids have found life to be so meaningless and hopeless that they believe it is a viable alternative to risk their freedom for a drive in a car to shoot up homes and streets, rob banks or sell Meth.

I'm afraid we have more Christians praying for Jesus' return than for His grace to return His lost to Himself. It's got to change and it starts with us. Is it a monumental task? You bet it is. Is it a task that Jesus is behind? If you said "correct" you'd be right again. But the cool thing is we don't have to do it all by ourselves. Each person, each street, each church in each city. It's time folks. Really it is.