Good Ole Jimmy

In the Bible this guy named Mark, who was one of Jesus' best friends, tells a story about Jesus interacting with another guy. This guy doesn't have a name in the Bible, so we will call him Jimmy. Jimmy was crazy. He was possessed by demons, and everybody in the town that Jimmy lived in disowned him. They would take Jimmy up to the tombs and chain him up there and leave. In the middle of the night the townspeople could hear Jimmy scream.

Jimmy was naked.
Jimmy cut himself.
Jimmy beat himself up.
Jimmy was an outcast.
Jimmy wasn't loved by anyone.

One day Jesus and his disciples rowed over to the town where Jimmy lived. Before Jesus could take two steps out of the boat Jimmy was there, begging Jesus not to hurt him. Jimmy was scared to death. Jesus lifted Jimmy off of his knees and grabbed the demons that lived inside of him and threw them into some pigs. The townspeople freaked out because somebody was actually interacting with Jimmy, 1,000s of demon possessed pigs just ran off a cliff, and this Jesus guy was to blame.

Jimmy was clothed.
Jimmy had new meaning.
Jimmy loved himself.
Jimmy was a part of something bigger than himself.

Jesus decided it was his time to go, and he started to get back in the boat. Jimmy begged Jesus to let him go with Jesus, but Jesus said no. He told Jimmy to go and tell all the people you know about the great things I just did.

That's the cool thing about Jesus. You don't have to clean up your life before you start a relationship with him. You start a relationship with Jesus where you are.

And Jesus will come to you. Just like Jimmy didn't have to travel around the world to find this Jesus guy, you don't either. He comes to all of us, but then he leaves it up to us to reply. Jesus isn't Waldo. It used to take me days to find Waldo in his red and white stripped shirt. And sometimes we think it is like that with Jesus. He isn't hiding from us like Waldo is. Just open your eyes and heart, and he will right there for you.