Door to Door Christian

Chapter One

      The reality is that after becoming a door-to-door salesman, I realized how much it had in common with being a Christian. We as Christians sojourn in a world that is not our final destination. Yet so many here have no hope of things getting better, we move around just trying to keep our own lives afloat, yet we still try to shine a little of God's love on others.      

      It reminds me of a song I heard that was on a movie soundtrack. The movie was Queen of the Damned, a vampire movie where the queen of the vampires awakens after her long Slumber and proceeds to cause mass chaos. One song in particular stuck out, a song called not meant for me in which the chorus goes;

"I'm trapped in this world, lonely and fading, heart broken,waiting for you to come. We are stuck in this world that's not meant for me, that's not meant for me."

      I find so many parallels here. The song is a reference to vampires, but you can clearly see how the lyrics can be interpreted into a Christ Light. Trapped in a lonely and fading world, one that people are not finding hope in Christ, but meaningless other things. Fading due to the time ticking away until Christ returns. Heartbroken by all the hate, sin and despair waiting for the return of Christ. And how we are stuck in this world, but this is not meant to be our home, Heaven is the home made for us and the one that will await those who have taken Christ as their lord and savior.

      The hate and despair in this world, being as it is, is always a central point of my thoughts. I've tried in the past to be a more aggressive force in the world for Christ, things just seem to fall flat. There was always work to do, people who didn't want to talk and management looking over your shoulder. Just plenty of obstacles even without mentioning the people that like to make jokes and I was going to be against your beliefs. It also doesn't help when your co-workers release torrents of profanity and otherwise talk in a way that no longer has any interest for some of us. The negativity that exists is just mind numbing, it makes me wonder how people go on without hope in Christ. The most common way I find is people trying to find peace by filling that god-shaped hole with whatever makes them feel better, or numbs the pain. I have come across several people like this and the addictions vary as much as the people do. They all point to the same thing, the lack of Christ. They also all end up making you feel the same way empty. Only the Holy Spirit can fill the void and lead you to a true and everlasting peace.

      It's also hard to see someone you care about heading down a bad road. Making decisions that could lead to destruction and just making a general wreck of things. And there are times I wish the Holy Spirit was a pill that could just be given to somebody and when it dissolved in their stomach the light would come on and they would be filled with loving kindness. If we're speaking the truth though, even if that could be marketed,  there would still be people who would believe it didn't work and we still waste time and energy just making themselves feel better for just a few more moments. It reminds me of this Charles Spurgeon quote that always sticks with me, 

      "If Sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with her arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and not let one go unwarned and unprayed for."

      You can talk about the wickedness of this world, but it all comes back to the great commandment. 

      "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two Commandments depend the whole law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40).

      Love is inevitably the answer. It seems easy enough, but some people still find love a hard standard to live up to. Especially when you show up at someone's front door, I'm sure you have heard many stories and I could tell a few myself of unloving people at the door. I personally believe it has to do with a person's comfort at their home, people feel like it's their fort and so when you come knocking and some people don't like it. Coming from a background with exactly no sales experience, the thought of going door-to-door was a little daunting. When I began my training, I discovered that pitching to people was broken down into stages; open, discovery, objections, close. The beauty of this formula is I can see how with a couple of tweaks, you could apply this formula to help anyone talk to others about Christ. One of the things that people have trouble with is sharing.

      There is a large disconnect with a Christian Community, there are a lot of Christians putting on their smiling faces every morning. If you look inside though, there is turmoil brewing. The fact of the matter is that people are very busy making it look like they have it all together, even though they are just cracked and broken as everyone else on the inside. The problem this creates is people feel like we are unapproachable because we have it all together, there are no shared heartaches, disappointments, pains and trials, and other Christians think there's something wrong with them because they didn't have it all together. Lastly, how are people going to bring those walls down and be truly transparent to people when they have been hiding behind their own created walls? Transparency is what can span the chasm, people who are consumed by the world can't understand why Christians have the answers to the pain of the world, if they think we have no idea what they are going through.