Some time ago my girlfriend (at the time) and I went to a birthday party for one of her good friends. It was a pajama party. Basically a local party that you couldn’t enter unless you were wearing pajamas.

It was a lot of fun.

I met a lot of new people.

Sometimes meeting new people is fun.

This fun I speak of was recorded with a camera. Pictures were taken. Meeting new people… making relationships, friendships, sharing our lives together, and having fun.

These pictures captured the essence of what it looked like to genuinely connect with people on their turf and to create bonds with them.

Today I received a text from my girlfriend while sitting in a movie theatre watching a less than great Bruce Willis movie. It was a text of caution. A text of circumspection.

She informed me that among the life-sharing party pictures that were posted in the internet there was an beer bottle in one of the pictures. She indicated that maybe it wasn’t good for the ministry. And she was right.

This was a warning.

This was a premonition.

But why?

Protection.

She wanted to protect me.

But from what?

The question isn’t from what; but from who?

Them.

Christians.

After rushing online and deleting this photo I wondered why I had to in the first place. It was this idea that we as Christians live these lives with no gray areas. Which sounds great and even looks great if you can live an imitation of life where there is never anything questionable. Just one problem: it’s not real, it’s an imitation, it’s not real life. You see, I believe that sometimes we (followers of Christ) end up violating the very thing that we try to protect.

Our mission.

What is our mission?

Unfortunately Christians might have all kinds of different answers. A true follower of Christ has a simple clear mission: to save lives.

Who is the one who needs a doctor; the sick or the healthy?

Jesus was known for spending most of his time at parties. When questioned about his behavior he responded by telling a couple stories. One of which funny enough was about wine.

He explained that no one puts new wine into old wineskins because the skin would burst and be destroyed while the wine spilled out onto the floor. New wine is put in new wineskins.

Jesus is telling people to change the way they’re thinking. Not just to keep the same system and add him [Jesus] to it… but to renew their entire thought process.

Renew their entire thought process.

The reality is, that beer bottle represented more than just alcohol… something that was lost. And I was so quick to hit the delete button on something that was lost because I was afraid of my image to the assembly instead of setting the unashamed example. I was more concerned with the 99 than I was with the one… which I fear is how sometimes we handle people who are lost. Because sometimes unless they come at our mercy, on our turf…

Delete.

Sometimes we end up violating the very thing that we are trying to protect.

There’s a problem when my girlfriend and I are worried about what Christians think if they find out we hang out with people who aren’t Christians.

This is called a cult.

My question is if you’re only spending time with people who are Christians… are you really a follower of Jesus?