Jesus Doesn’t Social Distance; Never Has, Never Will.

How are things going for you in this era of Social Distancing? Are you getting used to people standing 6 feet away? Has the latest fashion trend of wearing masks become common place and no longer odd or frightful? Perhaps you have fully adjusted to not hugging people? Or maybe you are a rule breaker and you have been hugging away this whole time anyway (go Rebel go!). No matter where you stand in our new Socially Distant World, I want you to know that Jesus is right there with you.

Jesus doesn’t Social Distance and He refuses to do so because it is fully outside the realm of His character. Jesus gets right up in your business. Once He is invited in, He is in you and on you and around you, no matter what. In fact, the only way that Jesus socially distances from you is if YOU keep the door of your heart closed and locked. Even then He is just outside that door knocking and waiting for you to open it so He can pour His love on you from way closer than the suggested “6 foot safe distance”. In the meantime, His love and His light will still be pouring on you from a distance. You can’t stop His love. You can’t outrun or outwit or talk Him out of His love for you. He is here and near, whether you like it or not.

As a matter of history, Jesus never followed Social Distance Protocol. In fact, in His life He went where He was not supposed to go. He went where others considered it unsafe. He hung with the people society viewed as unworthy including tax collectors and lepers. Know what else? Against all societal norms and religious laws, He actually TOUCHED the lepers, GASP?!?!? So, walking into your heart, when you open the door, is easy-peasey for Jesus.

I am beyond blessed to have an intimate relationship with Jesus, with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. It is a deep desire of my heart to see others have an intimate relationship as well and I realize it can seem scary. You might think that if you say “Yes” to Jesus, your life will have to change. I am here to tell you that if you think that, you are absolutely 100% correct. If you say Yes to Jesus, I can guarantee you that your life will change. Hey – don’t stop reading now! Stick with me and KEEP READING because the change I speak of is nothing like the lie you have believed for years.

Your life will indeed change, but it will change for the better. When you answer that knock and open the door of your heart to Jesus you will no longer want to carry anger, bitterness, frustration, anxiety, fear and worry. Rather you will long to fill your life with Love, Joy, Peace, Patience and Hope. You will trade in your ashes for beauty and shed the weights and worries of this world. No longer will you be held captive and be swooned, swayed and influenced by the kingdom of darkness. Rather you will be walking in the freedom and power that the Kingdom of Light provides and Jesus will help you make that trade from darkness to light. That sounds like a Positive Change, doesn’t it?

Jesus promises that your change will be for the better and not only that, He promises that He will HELP you. He told us so here:

Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Will your choices change? Most likely. Will your desires change? I can’t honestly see how they could not change. But, your choices and desires will change of the volition of your own heart and will release the fruit of the Kingdom of God into your life. That will bring more happiness, peace and joy into your life than those prior choices and desires could ever provide.

You see, the worldly pleasure choices bring only temporary treasure/pleasure. Each are short lived and many have some worldly consequences that are unpleasant and last much longer than the pleasures themselves. However, when you choose treasures in heaven, you open the door to a powerful realm of blessing and power that lasts for eternity. So, you get a double portion, so to speak. You get the blessings here on this planet and you get to enjoy them again when you enter Heaven. Sounds like a Win-Win to me.

You might worry that your choice to say Yes to Jesus would make you a prisoner of Religion. You may think your Yes means you have to become an all consumed-church-going-every-night-of-the-week-Bible-thumping-door-knocking annoyance that just won’t shut up about God in any environment. Let me assure you that is a lie, a Big, Stinking, Rotten Lie. Truly saying Yes to Jesus is one of the most freeing things you can do in your life and it frees you to be you, in the way you were created to be. That is because Jesus is ALL about LOVE and when you choose to walk with Him, He will lead you to love others right where they are in the way that you enjoy loving people. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it is safe to assume that would NOT be by knocking them on the head with a Bible by swinging it like a 2 x 4 but rather by loving them in a way that God gifted you to do so. That might be through music, art, speaking, writing, giving of your money or time or just giving a good ‘ol fashioned non-social distance hug.

The freedom you will experience when you say Yes to Jesus will open your heart, mind and spirit to love everyone you encounter. You will be become emboldened to love with the love you have been given and won’t be able to help yourself when it comes to pouring out love! God’s Kingdom advances when His Children love others in the way they enjoy doing so, because that means we are being who He made us to be and that is a beautiful thing!

You might be afraid to open the door to Jesus because you think that you are unworthy or unlovable or beyond His reach. If that describes you: I say PERFECT – because that means you are exactly the one Jesus is looking for. He didn’t come to save the righteous, Jesus came to save those who don’t “deserve it” and as it turns out that is ALL of us.

Still scared to open that door? What have you got to lose? Anger, worry, bitterness? A tired life lacking Peace and Joy? Trust me on this, you will not regret the Yes. My life is completely different than I ever could have asked or imagined and it just keeps getting better. That doesn’t mean my life is perfect, but it means that it is filled with love and joy and I wouldn’t trade one single day of it for any temporary worldly pleasure.

Take a chance, open that door – tell Jesus you recognize that He gave His life for you and let Him walk you into freedom and peace like you have never known.

You. Are. Loved.

Let. Him. Love. You.