Christian Living Stories: Son-Block

Do you get frustrated with other people?

The other day in a supermarket I lost my cool. I was looking at some fruit, and was only there a second when a woman walked in front of me and blocked my view. I responded: “Who do you think you are? I was here first.” The woman laughed nervously, blushed, and then tears came to her eyes.

I made a mistake. Every time we meet someone is an opportunity for them to meet Jesus, the Jesus who lives within us. Instead of meeting Jesus, the woman in the supermarket met an impatient man concerned about his own desires.

Jesus did not shine in that encounter—my blocking factor was too high. Just like we use a suncream to block out the sun’s rays, sometimes our self gets in the way and blocks the Son of God, the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2), from shining through us—we become Son-blocks!

Instead of acknowledging the woman’s needs, I was thinking of my own. Maybe, like mine, they were selfish. Or perhaps she was in a rush, or she was thinking of other things and was unaware that she had interrupted me. Whatever her personal situation in life was, I did not meet her there.

In Luke 9:10-11 Jesus was trying to have a private meeting with his disciples when the multitudes interrupted him. Jesus did not send them away, but “received them.”

Throughout his ministry Jesus met people at their point of need.

Jesus lives in us Christians, and can help us shift our viewpoint from a selfish to an outgoing focus—will we let him do that? Shall I—will you—block out the self and let Jesus shine through?

Author: James R. Henderson