The Bald Goat

There have been a few times when I received an amazing compliment. Usually when a spectacular compliment comes along it is unexpected and out of the blue. It is actually when the other person doesn’t even realize they are giving you a compliment when the impact is felt the greatest. Strange, but true.

I remember one compliment I received while working as a computer teacher at a Boy’s and Girl’s Club in Abilene, TX. I was going to leave this job and move to Carlsbad, NM as an Assistant Minister for a church. When I was telling some of the kids that I was leaving to work for a church as a minister one girl looked at me and said, “You’re a minister? Well, that fits.” I will never forget this. I had never mentioned to anyone in the class that I was a Christian much less had the desire to become a minister for a church, but the way I lived my life made it completely unsurprising that I would be doing this.

This last week I received a compliment that may just be the best compliment ever. He didn’t even say it to me, but to my friend who felt like I should hear it. I met someone for the first time this week and we were able to have lunch and share some time together. Brian had known this person for a while and had invited him to eat lunch with us. Brian and I had been talking a lot that morning about my blog post on living “naked” and as the conversation with my new friend progressed, certain ideas from all of this kept creeping into the conversation. He is a Christian and spoke freely into the conversation. So many ideas about honesty and openness and relationship with each other and God. About worship and love. Our whole lunch was jam packed with stories and thoughts and beliefs and ideas all within the course of about 45 minutes.

When it was over and we were about to leave he thanked Brian for our time together at lunch and said that, just in the time we had spent together that day, he could sense that I was free. Freedom was oozing out of me. it permeated my thoughts and my speech. It manifested itself in my actions and my manners. It was compelling and inviting and it was real. He said, in such very few words, that I understood Jesus when he said “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Basically, Jesus was telling us that it was time to be free.

Lord, let this be real to us today. Let this be inviting and compelling and irresistible. Lead us into a life that oozes with this freedom and draws others to you through the way we live and speak and love. Release us from the burden of our religious bondage and bring us into the freedom of a relationship with you.