Let John be John
At the end of a long hallway in our church my friend, Dan, put a new trash bag into a trash can that he had just emptied. It was the most ordinary thing to do on a very ordinary day. As he was pressing the bag into the bottom of the can I rushed up to him and delivered some bad news about some gossip that had been spread about us by a fellow named John. I said, “Dan, what are we going to do?!” Dan said, “What are we going to do about what?” “John,” I said forcefully, “what are we going to do about John?!” Dan laughed softly, and said, “We’re going to let John be John.”
Just like that the top blew off of my head. I couldn’t believe that that was going to be our strategy going forward. At the same time I could believe it because I knew Dan was mirroring Jesus to me. “Jesus saw God in all that he saw” even when he played witness to the worst of our behaviors. He let us be and loved us all the same. That’s why Dan said, “We are going to let John be John.”
You never know when the big lesson or the transforming revelation is going to come. A guy putting a bag in a trash can might be more than meets the eye. Look closely, listen, God is here.
