People Are Closer Than They Appear

One of my favorite movies is Sister Act. Although a little irreverent at times, it has great throw-back music and a message for us all about relationships and assumptions.

Takeaways:

• Sometimes things happen in our life that change what we thought was the plan for our lives. The main character, Sister Mary Clarence (played by Whoopie Goldberg) witnessed a crime which eventually put her into witness protection posing as a nun in a convent in downtown San Francisco.
• Sometimes our initial encounters with people in a different setting or culture can be challenging as we seek to understand differences and look for similarities. Some of the nuns were skeptical of this plan, others embraced the change. Sister Mary Clarence felt like a foreigner, not understanding the customs, traditions, and lifestyle of the sisters.
• Sometimes God challenges his followers to evaluate what they are doing and what new thing He may be calling them to do. Sister Mary Clarence challenged the sisters to think about what they were doing and why they were doing it. She also challenged them to get out into their neighborhood to have a positive impact on people, welcoming them into the church.
• Nearly everyone in the movie was challenged to look at things differently, which resulted in growth, joy and positive impact on others.

In the Bible we read an interesting account of a well-known Christ follower:  Peter. He was serious about his faith and dedicated to sharing it with others, in his own people group. God had bigger plans for Peter!

First, God gave Peter a vision that he initially could not understand. In the vision, God was instructing Peter to eat foods that were contrary to the customs and culture of his faith. He was shocked and he rejected the notion! God repeated that instruction two more times and Peter, puzzled about the meaning, realized that perhaps God was stretching him.

God sent a person from a different culture to invite Peter to travel with him to his home where he served a government official. Peter went with him. Peter and the official had a good conversation about God and discovered two things: First, they were both only understanding part of God’s plan, and second, God had put them together to help each other understand God’s truth. They learned that God’s gift of relationship with Him for eternity was intended for all people who believed in Jesus.  (You can read the account in the Bible in Acts 10)

God also blesses us with friendships and relationships with people who in some ways may be different from us, but in most ways are just like us!