Maggie’s Poem – Christians From An Atheist’s Viewpoint
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” - Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)
In Lee Strobel & Mark Mittelberg’s book “The Unexpected Adventure: Taking Everyday Risks to Talk with People about Jesus” (Zondervan 2009), Lee mentions Maggie, a lady who was attending a non-believers group he lead while at Willow Creek Church.
It’s a great illustration of who we are and the responsibility we have as Christians (aka Committed Follower’s of Christ) As 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” (NIV)
For me, Maggie’s poem is convicting as all the times I am less-than-Christ-like come screaming at me: impatience, pride, even social awkwardness where I come across as cold and aloof. See if you have the same conviction:
Maggie’s Poem
Do you know
do you understand
that you represent Jesus to me?
Do you know
do you understand
that when you treat me with gentleness,
it raises the question in my mind
that maybe He is gentle too.
Maybe He isn’t someone
who laughs when I’m hurt.
Do you know
do you understand
that when you listen to my questions
and you don’t laugh,
I think, “what if Jesus is interested in me, too?”
Do you know
do you understand
that when I hear you talk about arguments
and conflicts and scars from your past,
that I think, “Maybe I’m just a regular person
instead of bad, no good little girl who deserves abuse.”
If you care, then I think maybe He cares –
and then there’s this flame of Hope that burns inside of me
and for a while I am afraid to breathe
because it might go out.
Do you know
do you understand
that your words are His words?
Your face is His face
to someone like me?
Please, be you say you are!
Please, God, don’t let this be another trick.
Please let this be real this time. Please!
Do you know
do you understand
that you represent Jesus to me?.
P.S. The “rest of the story”: In a recent radio program, Lee announced that Maggie called him and informed him that she is now Born Again!
Tagged as:
2 Corinthians,
Ambassadors,
Christ,
Lee Strobel,
Maggie's Poem,
Mark Mittelbeg,
The Unexpected Adventure,
Willow Creek Church,
Witnessing
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Well that does say alot, but how about those who have eyes and see not, or ears and hear not-wouldn’t that be like casting your pearls before swine?
Our Lord loved -came to save ‘all’ men–but they crucified ‘Him’- because those in their wrong minds had to make ‘Him’ look wrong so they could appear right. Nothing new today, do you not agree?
Maybe that is why ‘He’ warns his followers, that they hated me and they will also hate you without a cause. So what say you?
Teresa – good questions. Jesus told his disciples to go into many towns and villages. If a town rejected them, they were instructed to shake the dust of the town off their sandals and move on.
If the swine is known (i.e. you’ve already had dealings enough with a person to know they will not listen or interact respectively with you) then, yes, that would probably be a ‘casting pearls’ situation.
In Maggie’s case, she was searching for answers. The group she attended was an open-door event specifically for non-believers.
James