{"id":627,"date":"2009-02-17T10:31:40","date_gmt":"2009-02-17T15:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=627"},"modified":"2013-05-31T18:38:34","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T02:38:34","slug":"the-power-of-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/the-power-of-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of NORMAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read the following blog post on the Doable Evangelism<\/a> blog today. I think in the past week or so, I have had this exact same conversation with various coworkers about a dozen times. None of them have “believed in Jesus” yet, but that’s okay. I’m just developing relationships and trying to show them that Christians – even former pastors – can be normal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 3 months since I left my \u201cchurch\u201d job to take a \u201csecular\u201d job.\u00a0 I\u2019ve developed a nice friendship with one of my coworkers, Joey (age 27). Joey and I have been sharing stories about our lives and past as we work side by side. I have lots of colorful stories since I am 25 years older than him.\u00a0 We laugh a lot.\u00a0 He cusses a lot. He is pretty honest with me about stuff.<\/p>\n

The other day, another gal at work told him that I was a minister. You should have seen his face when he heard. He looked at me and said, \u201cAre you sh****** me? How could you be a minister?\u00a0 You are so NORMAL!\u201d Then he had that look on his face. I could tell he was trying to remember everything he ever said to me.\u00a0 He said, \u201cHow?\u00a0 We talked sh**!\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I can ever talk to you again. I mean like I see you in an entirely different light. Are you going to try to convince me to go to church now?\u201d I felt bad and tried\u00a0to convince him that I really am normal, and the image he had of ministers is not who I am.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t talk to me for the rest of the day, but I knew he had to work things out in his head.\u00a0 The next day I was working next to him and he says, \u201cI told my dad about you last night.\u201d \u201cWhat did you tell him?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 \u201cI told him about all the lies and deception,\u201d Joey replied. I asked, \u201cWhat lies and deception?\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cI told him how you act all cool and normal, but really you are a minister.\u201d\u00a0 I laughed, but I really knew that in the past Joey had probably experienced the super holy, judgmental Christians (and clergy) who feel the need to accomplish their goals rather than listen to the heart of God and love people.<\/p>\n

The story gets better.\u00a0 Two days later, Joey came to me first thing in the morning and told me that he \u201cgot saved last night.\u201d\u00a0 I thought someone put him up to it\u2026.you know\u2026.tell me this so that he can have a laugh on me.\u00a0 Well, it was true.\u00a0 Joey said that a preacher showed up on his doorstep and told him about what Jesus did for him.\u00a0 Joey said, \u201cI listened to him because I kept picturing your face and thinking that this must be what you do and what you tell people. I listened to him and then he made me pray.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHe MADE you pray?\u201d I asked? \u201cWell, he didn\u2019t make me pray, I wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could hardly believe that Joey was telling me this story. I thought for sure that he was shi***** ME! I asked him if I could take my break with him and spend a few minutes summing up what the preacher said to him last night.\u00a0 Joey and I went to break together and I got to explain the love of God to him.<\/p>\n

I believe that my friendship with Joey and me being my normal self at work, somehow helped Joey to open his heart to the words of the preacher and the love and forgiveness of God.<\/p>\n

I love being in on what God is doing in peoples\u2019 lives.\u00a0 I was created for this.<\/p>\n

-Margaret<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That last line is exactly what I told my wife last night after my latest conversation with a coworker: “I was created for this.” Thank you Margaret (and thank you Randy) for sharing this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read the following blog post on the Doable Evangelism blog today. I think in the past week or so, I have had this exact same conversation with various coworkers about a dozen times. None of them have “believed in Jesus” yet, but that’s okay. I’m just developing relationships and trying to show them that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[19],"class_list":{"0":"post-627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"tag-discipleship","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Power of NORMAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/the-power-of-normal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Power of NORMAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I read the following blog post on the Doable Evangelism blog today. 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