I'd Like You More If You Were More Like Me by John Ortberg

Author:John Ortberg [Ortberg, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Relationships, RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2017-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

Each member of the class individually went door-to-door, saying to people, “Hello, I am from Community Presbyterian Church, the church just around the corner. We are conducting a survey today to find out what gifts God has placed in this community. What skills and abilities do you have?”

The truth is that I wanted to die. Racial tensions are still very present in our city, so I knew there would be at least some social discomfort for both the African-American residents of this housing project and for me. Furthermore, my height can be quite startling and intimidating, adding awkwardness to virtually all first encounters. And finally, the words I was supposed to repeat sounded totally hokey to me. “Hello, I am from Community Presbyterian Church, the church just . . .” Yuck! I would rather be selling Girl Scout cookies. I had a bad attitude about this exercise and wished I had chosen to attend the Sunday school class that was examining the finer points of Presbyterianism. But alas, I had chosen this class, so off I dutifully marched and knocked on the first door.

The thirty-something African-American woman who cracked open the door slightly was about 5'2", giving her a wonderful view of my belly. She looked up at me the way one would look at one’s first sight of a Martian. I tried not to flinch and launched into my sales pitch, “Hello, I am from Community Presbyterian Church, the church . . .”

She said, “What?!” looking even more incredulous than before. . . .

I swallowed hard and repeated, “What skills do you have? What are you good at doing?”

She repeated, “What?!” And then I repeated my questions again, asking God to add jewels to my crown for going through all of this. . . .

“Well, I guess I can cook.”

Suddenly, a voice from the dark unknown behind the lady shouted out, “She can cook chitlins like there is no tomorrow!”

Another voice yelled, “Yeah, ain’t nobody can cook as good as she can!”

Slowly a smile spread across her face and she said, “Yes, I think I can cook.”

Next thing I knew, I found myself sitting in the living room with about six African Americans gathered around. I live in the South. This does not happen easily. Not sure what to do, I reverted to script, “Hello, I am from Community Presbyterian Church . . .” They took it from there.

“This is Joe, he can fix bikes. . . . And this here is Mac. How is your car running? If you ever have trouble with your car, bring it right here to Mac.” . . . They went on and on, bragging about one another to me. . . .

We started a process of empowerment by asking a simple question: what gifts do you have? When one is feeling marginalized, such a question can be nothing short of revolutionary.”[176]

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