Cooking, hula-hoopin and drumming are some of the crazy fun ways we experience our dear brother Sud. He comes in town by bus, car and maybe one day plane to share some life with Jesus family in Birmingham. Sometimes he sleeps in a tent, a couch or has his own private room with a community family. He’s easy – easy to love, easy to go with the flow, easy to share of adventures and struggles, easy to help move huge stacks of chairs or ready to sit around and sip chai. Easy when easy is healthy and good.
We all met Sud when he came to our annual camping weekend years ago and have deepened that relationship with every passing year. He’s in love with Jesus and the joy that seeps out of this man makes anyone want to laugh, dance and go try something new. He’s the epitome of “if not, why not?”
If you are scared to talk about Jesus in the every day of your life, find time to talk with Sud. He will give you ideas on how Jesus is teaching him to incorporate Jesus into everything!! Facebook ministry. Park ministry. Tutoring ministry. Email ministry. Text ministry. Work ministry. Life as ministry.
What about the past? Guilt and shame find you paralyzed and not moving forward. Sud’s life demonstrates a transformation. The old is gone and the new has come. It’s really possible, not only to believe it, but to experience it. New life. Abundant life. Freedom in Jesus.
And the fear of humiliation? Or the fear of people? Self-worth issues making shyness and introversion the largest obstacle. Nah. Not anymore. Sud demonstrates that when we meet Jesus, He will grow His confidence in us to the point that we are so hidden in Jesus that we are not bogged down with our self image, what others think, or the fear of mistake. Sud demonstrates the “go for it” life, fueled by trust and faith in Jesus.
But I work all the time and now I need to work for God too? Sud shows us that work is the overflow of worship, it’s servanthood, it’s out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks and that faith without works is dead. We cannot help but work heartily unto God with all we’ve got, whether cleaning the toilet at our home, preparing a meal for our neighbor, working our 9 – 5pm shift, or cleaning up after a gathering. We serve from the overflow of Jesus in us that fuels our lives and turns our lives into a letter of Christ, seen and read by everybody.
One time we overheard Sud sharing… “I use to be so miserable, never smiling, lacking joy, always chasing the American Dream, smoking, angry, inadequate, quiet, blah”
All the scenarios above were Sud’s own struggles. He lacked the confidence of Christ and the freedom of Christ. He lacked Jesus. But…
JESUS. He transforms a mortal man into the image of Himself. It’s insane really to experience that transformation in our hearts, everything that was impossible becoming possible through Christ. He meets us in our junk and deeply loves us, pursuing an intimate relationship with us and showing us that because of the cross and His death, we can have life, full life, a life filled with the Spirit, an eternal life and peace for right now.
When you meet Sud, you meet a man that has been infiltrated by Jesus, wrecked, transformed, infused, and refined into a man that is so passionate about the hope that he has found that he will gladly throw off every incumbrance that slows him from the path Jesus has for his life. He is malleable in the Master’s hands.
“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” – 2 Corinthians 3:4-6
We need more insanely crazy Jesus followers in our community. Sud makes us better as he gives everything, working with all Christ’s energy that so powerfully works in him. It looks like simple, child like surrender, maybe even a hint of over-zealous and appears excitement driven, but dear friends, the surrender has come with great cost and Sud has found that there in that deep cost is where the freedom lies. He has chosen to be a follower of Jesus, not a mere fan. He has chosen to want the more and the more and the more because what he has tasted of Jesus has left him with an insatiable thirst and longing for more.
Ready for the next Jesus conversation with Sud as we take another crazy ride in the box truck, go for a bike ride, sit around a campfire for worship, eat some more Indian food, and share the Word together. Come join in and get to know this brother whose joy is so contagious that you will be smiling, encouraged and finding yourself doing something you never thought you would do.
When we sing this song together, we want to mean it!
All to Jesus, I Surrender
All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,
I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
All to Jesus, I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.
All to Jesus, I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.
All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!