When You See My Face Hope it Gives You....Help

Many of you reading this are familiar with, or have at least heard of the band, The All-American Rejects and their song When You See My Face Hope it Gives You Hell. The song, is going to be one of the all time great break-up songs of today. One day, however, my family and I were riding in the car and the song came on and Marissa was singing the chorus in the back seat when we heard this, "When you see my face hope it gives you HELP." Donna and I smiled at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. We found out later that Marissa honestly thought this is how the song went, she thought they were saying "help."


I thought to myself and said, wouldn't it be nice if that's really how the song went. This could be a great anthem for the church. Unfortunately, many Christians have the look of hell expressed on their face rather than the look of joy. The majority of people in the church, who claim to be Christians look like they were baptized in pickle juice. It is not wonder that people turn away from the church, because they only see sour patch faces. There are faces in the church expressing joy, peace, love and happiness, they are just not the first ones seen.


I'm also reminded of the Coors Light commercials featuring the "bitter beer face." As I greet people coming to and leaving church, I tend to see faces with that bitter expression. They wear the mask of Christianity when people are watching them, but soon as the eyes turn away the mask comes off. Why do "Christians" look this way, when they have fallen in love with God? I think the real question is, have they fallen in love with God?


What would it look like if people did look at Christians and felt they could find help? When Jesus was traveling with His disciples, people from all over came to Him to find help. He helped people be free from their chains of sickness, oppression, death, disease, ailments and above all from sin. When they saw His face, they found help. Later when Jesus commissioned the disciples to carry out His mission, people continued to find help in their faces.


When people enter the doors of church today, do they find help or bitter faced people taking communion with sour patch kids and pickle juice? Or, are they taking communion with the blood and body of the risen Christ, and then sharing in communion with one another? Lifting each other up, encouraging one another, praying for one another, laughing with one another and crying with one another. I don't want to sound redundant by always talking about relationships, but it's going to take this to for the church to be the church again. It's easier to be in relationships with people when we greet them with authentic, God given, joy, rather than looking like we just sucked on a lemon.


The mission of the church has not changed and we are instructed to make disciples. Our part in the making process is to show the love, joy and peace of God. Then the Holy Spirit does the rest, you know the hard part. The Holy Spirit changes the persons heart, soul and mind after they see and receive love from us. When someone sees our face they should see the love of Christ. If they see something other than this, it will likely turn them farther away from the church and from God.


What is expressed on your face? Is it something that is going to give people Hell or Heaven? I pray it is Heaven, for this is the kind of help our world truly needs. Our world doesn't need any more people walking around looking lost, sad, miserable, lonely, afraid, or ticked. Again I say, Christians need to show authentic, God given, joy. Where does this joy come from, it comes from loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And if you love your neighbor as yourself, then that's the love they need to love God. And in the end you've helped someone when they saw your face.