Embrace the Shared Language

On Monday afternoon I was packing up my laptop, about to leave for two evening meetings at the church, when I saw a young man carrying a box rounding the corner of my house. I opened the front door to find him about to place the box on the steps. His t-shirt said CLOVER in big, white letters. It was my meal box!

 

"Oh! Thank you so much!" I said, "I can take it."

 

"No problem!" he replied, and then his face lit up a bit, and he said more pointedly than casually: "Have a blessed day."

 

I must have looked surprised because he touched his neck and said, "Your cross."

 

I reached to my neck, and yes, as I usually do when heading to the church, I had put on one of my cross necklaces.

 

"Christ is King!" he exclaimed.

 

And then a thousand little thoughts ran through my head, including: Oh no, he sounds evangelical. What if his theology is judgmental? Christ is King- why would he start with that?! What does he mean by that? I wonder what church he goes to?

 

But then I relaxed into the moment, and embraced the connection.

 

"Yes, he is king!" I said. "I am a minister, actually."

 

His eyes widened. "You are! Well! Then you know how there is so much around us that can pull us away from His will."

 

"Yes, there certainly is" I agreed.

 

We chatted for another minute, and then he drove away.

 

If we had started to unpack what "Christ is King" or "His will" means we could have found ourselves at not only a theological impasse, but on opposite sides of a political and cultural fault line.

 

But we didn't unpack it. Instead we embraced the shared language and had a beautiful moment of connection, because we had found a fellow Christian! We were each seeking to follow Jesus -- and maybe we have VERY different ideas of what that looks like, but I trust that we both want good for the world. In this election season of heightened fear and division, how can we find places to connect?