Out of Indifference

There is nothing like a well-made cup of coffee in the morning. I'm writing this as I sit by Mary's Well in Nazareth hoping I'll be done writing by the time I get to the bottom of the cup. I know to some of you that might be cool; he's sipping coffee where Jesus lived. You see, there, that's where Mary would come with the rest of Nazareth's virtuous girls to draw water. As I sit here pondering the thought I could feel my heart in my chest pounding. That's the coffee.

It's hard to feel excited about something that is a daily part of your life. I can imagine Leonardo da Vinci waking up every day to the unfinished Mona Lisa. I imagine him staring at her thinking "I don't feel like it today, I'll paint tomorrow." He is said to have regretted never completing a single work, including the Mona Lisa. He could never enjoy it like a first looker.

I usually tell tourists they are lucky; they get to experience a place so important to their faith for the first time. They can have a first impression, just kick back and enjoy the show -- just finished my coffee and ordering another. I can imagine, and correct me if I'm wrong, tourists feeling that those locals around them are a part of the show. The old guy in the olive wood shop in market in old Jerusalem, the kid in the streets selling lighters, even the bus driver with his antics, they are a part of their Holy Land experience.

I just got up and left the coffee shop to play my part in the show. I represent the confusing looking Nazarene who looks western with his Captain America t-shirt and stereotypically Arab with my well-oiled beard. I walked to Mary's Well just to get this picture. Still I felt nothing. Some sort of indifference. And many people here have that feeling towards Jesus. It's not that they don't believe He ever existed, but just that He existed. He is a part of a distant history that is theirs but does not affect their present; and even more dangerously, not their future.

The only thing that can change the way locals "feel" about Jesus is to help them experience Him. This is where we, as disciples, need to step in and and step up our game. Jesus loved us with all of our blemishes. Although He knows us in-and-out He will never stop being excited about us. In turn, we, as disciples, have to be excited about people and share Christ's love with them. We are honored to be called workers in God's fields and move people from indifferent to different!

Below: The back side of Mary's Well rarely seen by tourists.