"Talk It"

They buggered and they pi-ied,

Means they scattered all around,

And if we hadn’t trotted up,

No way they could be found.

A round-up is a gather,

And penning brings them in,

Into a fenced enclosure,

A corral is a catch pen.

When sortin’ ‘em you separate,

The ones you will divide,

From what happens to the rest of them,

And if you’ve never tried,

To wean the calves or drive the bulls,

Or load the culls to go,

The work might just exhaust you,

Till then you do not know.

But if we use the cowboy talk,

With folks who live in town,

Never rode or worked the cows,

No understanding can be found.

The same is true for church folk,

With those who do not go,

We assume they understand,

A lot they do not know.

But to us it seems so obvious,

To them, well, not so much,

The sad part is we have good news,

But we’re really out of touch.

Paul said he became all things,

So he’d win not all, but some,

And that’s a real good strategy,

If we want the lost to come.

To Jesus who will save them,

Let’s take down every fence,

Learn to speak their language,

And changed lives will commence.

And, yes, we have to walk it,

So we back up what we say,

But now’s the time to talk it,

So they can know the way.

“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22, NIV)

Paul was not calling for any sort of moral or spiritual compromise. He did not think that believers who fell into sin should be coddled or catered to. At the same time he was all about leading people to Jesus and finding common ground with them so this could be facilitated. He was willing to change, adapt and be flexible in order to connect with them so they could understand the message of the good news. Let us do the same.

Lord, help us find common ground with sinners so they can find You, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Don Dane, used by permission. Thanks, Don, and God bless you.