There is a huge danger in using clichés – especially old, dated clichés. They tend to be thrown out and discounted immediately regardless of the truth they may contain.
So true.
So dangerous.
So we should just avoid the clichés – right?
Probably right. But I have never been accused of taking the safe path.
Here is the cliché I am going to use because God has used it to shape and reshape my sentness for four decades now.
“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Before you fast forward to the next chapter, consider two things.
First reason this cliché still works for me is simple. “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care” is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt. Same guy who came up with several pretty solid quotes:
“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.”
“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
“The greatest doer must also be a great dreamer. Of course, if the dream is not followed by action, then it is a bubble; it has merely served to divert the man from doing something.”
“Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
“Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.”
“I dream of men who take the next step instead of worrying about the next
thousand steps.”
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the
next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Pretty quotable guy – and if you read his autobiography, you will learn a very missional guy. So the quote works for me even if it is cliché.
Second reason this cliché still works for me is practical. It still works for me because it is still true.
Sentness requires that we have a solid theology of care and a solid theology of share. It means we must be both loving and bold. We lead with love. We follow with story.
If I want people to care about what I know and believe, they first have to know and believe that I care. That is my new twist on the old cliché.
Here is why I believe that even old clichés that are true still work.
Everyone you will ever meet is looking for two things: love and purpose.* That is true of every human being in the world. They are looking for relationships with people who really care. And they are looking for purpose and meaning for their lives.
So when you and I show up as people who really care, we are in! We are valid. We cannot be excused or dismissed.
I grew up with some well-meaning Christians who wanted to tell you about Jesus because that was their job but who did not often take the time or make the effort to prove that they really cared. For some reason, we did not see many people who were far from God find their way to Christ in our midst. Hmmm …
I now see a growing movement of caring Christ followers who are willing to lay down their lives for their friends that are far from God in order to gain the chance to share Christ with them. Yes!
Care matters.
Jesus made a big deal of this to his disciples the night before the crucifixion.
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:35 (NIV)
According to N.T. Wright, the early church took this admonition to love and care seriously:
“The Christian faith spread in the early centuries, despite the Romans trying to stamp it out, because of “ordinary” people living in an extraordinary way: caring for people — especially the poor — even when they were not related to them; giving people medical treatment, education and so on (which had been reserved for the rich or the elite before). People were astonished. They didn’t know it was possible to live like that!”
Ordinary people living in an extraordinary way by caring for people.
Being sent means I am sent to care. I am sent to love. I am sent to say by my life and my words, “You matter to me because you matter to God.”
We need a theology of care and a theology of share. Because they go hand in hand. You cannot be effective with one without the other.
Note: my good friend Brian Phipps has developed an entire discipleship system based on these two needs: love and purpose. I encourage you to check it out at disciplesmade.com. It is life changing stuff.