Wondering Where You Hang Out . . .

Mary at "One Thing is Needed" asks the question "Where Would Jesus Hang Out"? She found herself in a social club/bar listening to a friend's performance. She saw the kinds of things you might expect to see in a bar. She said that she was not sad to leave, but then she had a thought:

Then I remembered that Jesus would most likely have been quite comfortable last night hanging out with people who were doing and saying things that no respectable church person would ever be caught doing. Why was I so uncomfortable if Jesus would likely have spent the entire evening there? I'm not sure. It seems that I can read about several times when Jesus intentionally hung out with those who made other people uncomfortable. . .

I may say that I want to be like Jesus, but do I realize that it means loving and being around people the "church" has often rejected, pitied, neglected, ignored, protested against, avoided, hurt, or demanded changed from? People that I'm uncomfortable around? I'm slow to learn, but hopefully I am.

Mary is asking important questions and coming to very important conclusions. If we are going to follow Jesus, then we will be following him into places and circumstances that might make us uncomfortable. But, following Jesus is NEVER about our comfort.