When People Take Priority

I’m writing this from our new home. Moving is never easy but I probably shouldn’t complain since we moved a whopping half mile. We looked at places farther away, but we just couldn’t leave our neighborhood. We’ve built too many friendships here and have hosted too many block parties. It’s nice to go to the neighborhood coffee shop and know all of the baristas by name. We’ve seen friends meet Jesus and have had countless spiritual conversations with others. God’s doing something that we couldn’t walk away from. We just had to be here.

Maybe this is what happens when people fill your mind and occupy your prayers. When you start to really care for those around you, you can’t help yourself. People take the priority. At least, this explains some of Jesus’ actions.

So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar (1)

Funny thing about this story is Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria at all. In fact, it was a bit out of his way and unheard of for a Jewish Rabbi like himself. The Jews hated the Samaritan and avoided them at all cost.(2)

Yet Jesus had to go.(3)

There was the most unlikely of someone’s he needed to meet. There was a divine appointment awaiting. God was doing something he couldn’t just walk away from.

Do we prioritize our decisions around people? Or are we too busy? Too important? Too tired? Too scared? Too stuck at church?

May God create in us the kind of heart that just has to go. May we befriend the most unlikely of someone’s. May compassion override convenience. May people take priority. God may be doing something we just can’t walk away from.

Where do you have to go?

1. John 4:3-5

2. When Jesus’ enemies wanted to insult him they called him a Samaritan. (John 8:48)

3. If we were brutally honest, the reason we don’t share the gospel with those around us is because we don’t really want to. We have all the information we need. What we need… is desire.