Being Incarnational

[originally posted on my Facebook Notes 3-25-2009]

Incarnational.

It's a word that we hear referring to ministry and relating cross-culturally all the time in some circles. But, for those of us who haven't heard much about it, incarnational living means that you are doing life with another person or group of people as a way of ministering to them about Jesus. If you want to minister to young people, you hang out where they hang out, you coach a youth basketball team, etc. If you want to minister cross-culturally, you go with someone of another ethnic background to experience their family traditions.

Basically, you enter the life, the shoes and the experiences of someone else so that you can learn the best way of showing them who Jesus is.

As a matter of fact, Jesus is the best example of incarnational ministry. He stepped out of His place next to our Father in heaven and joined us on earth. He became one of us so that He could develop relationship w/ us and show us who God is and how God wants us to live.

Oh yeah - Jesus died for us too. So, living incarnationally is going to involve some sacrifice, pain and hard work as well.

Why am I writing about this?

Well, I've been thinking about my relationships and how I can improve them. And I think that I can adopt the practice of living incarnationally to help me love and understand others better.

For example: If I want to understand why my brother in Christ loves the opera so much, I can go to the opera w/ him. Normally, I might dismiss the opera as boring. But if I go w/ him, I can start to understand why he likes it so much and we'll have that experience together to add to our relationship.

I think being more incarnational will help in a bunch of my relationships. Can you imagine what would happen if people started stepping out of their comfort zones and stepping into someone else's word? My theory is that we'd learn how to love each other in a way that reflects Jesus more than we have in the past. The "least of these" might not be so hard to love and we'd hear "I just don't understand you!" a lot less often.

Easy? Definitely not. Worth it? Ask Jesus.