In 6th grade I was the Great Drewzini. My travelling magic show was quite in demand on the neighborhood birthday circuit. I left the crowds in awe and mystified with my Chinese Rice Bowls, Linking Rings, and card tricks.
There were always three kinds of kids at each party.
The first group was always in the very back. They were the ambivalent crowd. Couldn’t see, didn’t care, and knew whatever I was doing wasn’t relevant and only keeping them from getting cake faster.
The second group was always larger, closer, attentive, and completely in awe of how the milk I just poured into the rolled up newspaper completely vanished. Their jaws dropped in amazement. “Do it again!” they would shout with glee. I played to this crowd.
Then there was the one kid in the front row. He could destroy the joy of the crowd with one comment as he screamed “Its in the other hand” or came running up to grab the mysterious orb I had floating in the middle of the air. One kid.
It occurs to me that whenever I have the blessing of sharing Christ with a group of “strangers” on the street it always breaks out the same way.
There is always that handful in the back that could not be any less interested in what I had to say or whether their friends were interested. Then there are the kids in the middle. I love when I hear one say “wow I never knew that.” And there is always that one kid in the front that wants to throw out the bible and the entirety of God’s plan to reconcile us to Himself through Christ because of a “discrepancy” in Joshua 8 over the number of soldiers sent into battle (text me later if you are that one guy).
I really don’t mind the kid in the front. He is fun to mess with. I love the kids in the middle that are in awe that God really does care and draws them to Him. But it’s the kids in the back that give me chills. Shuddering to think I may be in the presence of an Esau in Romans 9. An Esau that can be in His presence and feel nothing.
Lord, give me patience for the kid in the front, give me joy for the kids in the middle, and break my heart for the kids in the back. I will keep trying to get their attention until You tell me that the show is over.
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