unemployment

So here’s a point of open honesty: I don’t react well to people in large groups. Busy traffic isn’t my best place, and neither are crowds at concerts or sporting events. To me, all the most negative behaviors of people are magnified in crowds. I see a bunch of people I just plain wish I wasn’t with.

I realize that isn’t good. I wish I was more like my wife; Dawn truly values people, and she enjoys the energy and excitement of a well-attended event. She, I think, is a lot more Christlike in regard to people than I am.

One of the reasons I say that is what I read in Matthew 9:35-38: 

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

For Jesus, crowds roused compassion. He looked at them not as unruly or ill-mannered or rude; he saw that they were harassed and helpless. He wanted better for them; he wanted to help.

And then, convicting me, he makes his statement about workers. One of the problems I have right now is that I can hire good workers. Unemployment is low, and there are a certain number of people who don’t want to be employed. When I talk to healthy, capable people who choose not to work, I get frustrated because there are a lot of good things I can’t do because I can’t hire workers.

How often, though, do I choose unemployment over working for Jesus? How often does kingdom work go undone because people like me don’t want the job?

Maybe if I could value people like Dawn does, and see them like Jesus does, I’d be more willing to dig in and work on the harvest.