What I learned on Sunday:

Two weeks ago during the church service we heard a song written/sung by Randy Stonehill called "Christmas at Denny's". I will see if there is a way I can upload it onto the Blog so you can all hear it. Anyway, it is a song about a man who's life has fallen apart around him, his daughter was killed in a car accident, he lost his job, and his wife started drinking her sorrows away, and so he walks away from life.

He sings of a life without hope, and that even on Christmas there is little of anything good for him,

He is:
'Dreaming about a Silent Night, a Holy Night, when things were alright...'
'Dreaming about how my life could have been if only, if only, if only...'
'While fate plays at chance, we all just dance...'

And then this last week, I was talking with a man at our church. George. He is forty-something, married, with two boys, and a pillar in our church. He gives his heart, and he gives his time. we had just collected the offering and were talking and he reminded me of the song, and then looked me in the eye and told me how much the song meant to him. Ten years ago his parents had both died, he was divorced, and working a dead-end job. And at Christmas he was all alone. But he told me that Christmas was one of his best. His faith in Jesus Christ strengthened him and sustained him and in his dark days held him. Then he thanked me for how I challenge him to remember that.

So what did I learn? Being "talked to" isn't so important to the hurting heart as knowing those that "live a life" that points to Jesus. The hurting are more often in need of someone to live life with them, to live faith with them, not somebody to tell them what to change and who to be.