Somebody's Watching That, Too

On Sunday we dealt with a hard word. Jesus, in Matthew 18, telling us that our own lives can become stumbling blocks — that the gap between what we say and how we actually live can be the very thing someone trips over on their way to Him. If you've spent a few days examining yourself, a little undone by it, that may be the best thing that could have happened, even though I am confident that it has been challenging. That's the Holy Spirit doing what He does, and I wouldn't want to rush you out of it.

Now, while it is important to do the work to respond to conviction, I don't want you staying there, because there's a flip side to that same truth, and it's the better news.

If your life can be the reason someone stumbles, then your life can just as easily be the reason someone gets closer.

The person who's watching you — and someone is — isn't only clocking your inconsistencies. They're also watching the moments you forgive when you had every right not to. The way you treat the person who can do nothing for you. What comes out of you when the pressure is on. They are quietly deciding whether Jesus is real, and part of their evidence is you. Which means the same attention that can push someone away can just as easily draw them in.

So here's what to actually do with Sunday. Don't only ask what you need to cut out of the road. Ask who you get to help down it. Put a face on it. There is a specific person in your life right now — a coworker, a neighbor, one of your kids, somebody who walked away from church years ago — who is a little closer to Jesus or a little further from Him, partly because of you. That's not only a warning. It's an invitation, and honestly, an honor.

And you don't clear their path by being impressive. You clear it the same way you entered the Kingdom in the first place — authentic, honest, dependent on Jesus... and certainly not pretending to be more put-together than you actually are. Nobody is looking for a Christian who has it all together. They're looking for one who is actually being changed by Jesus and isn't hiding it, and that's the kind of faith people follow.

So carry it well this week. You're not just getting through your days — you're carrying something the people around you actually need, and part of how they decide whether it's real is by watching how you carry it. That's not a weight to dread. It's the ordinary, mostly-unseen way you get to make Jesus believable to somebody who's still deciding. Most of them will never tell you it mattered, but we aren't doing this for affirmation, accolades, or rewards. We are carrying the Kingdom to those that need it the most, because it's the natural response to our own encounter with a King that laid His life down for His people.