Hippie Love (Boston 3)

Soon after I saw Bob leave, my attention was drawn to another guy. He was dressed like a two year old girl that was about to hit the hay. He was white, with blonde hair. He had dreadlocks in a mohawk with the sides of his hair buzzed off. Bottle caps were in his hair, and he wore a zebra onesie that was halfway zipped down in the front. The most horrible part of all of this was that he didn't wear anything else under the zebra suit. Dude was naked.

As he walked around, we quickly saw that he was the most well-known, popular guy that hang out in the pit. His name is Jester. He is a hippie. I told me that, too. I couldn't make a story up like this, even if I wanted too.

I don't remember how I got there, but I remember initiating conversation with him along with a girl on our team, Molly. In the beginning of the conversation, I gave him props for his dreads. I guess growing your hair into worms is worth something. Molly and I continued to engage with this guy, but every time someone passed by, they just needed to say hi to Jester or give him a hug. Jester probably gave out more "I love you's" than a Barney marathon on PBS. I remember asking him this question: what is love?

He quickly answered. He told us that God is love. "Awesome," we said. Because of that answer, we thought that he was Christian. He even told us that he was. After we talked a bit more, Molly starting bringing in some facts about Jesus. I remember her saying something about how God truly showed His love to us by sending Jesus, His Son, to die for our sins. We backed up each other pretty well however, Jester didn't completely agree with what we were saying. He soon confessed that he didn't think Jesus was a man who walked the earth.

So at this point, Molly and I are totally confused. He continued, "Yes, Jesus is not a man." Through our confusion, Molly and I attempted to justify what we knew. We explained to Jester how creation was made and sin came into the picture. Little did we know that he had a bit of "research" he had done for himself. I told him that we had a perfect relationship with God until we fell into sin, referencing the story of Adam & Eve. What started as a simple meet & greet transformed into a small debate faster than you could say #transformationtuesday.

Jester looked at us with a frown on his face and asked us if we were upset. We replied, "No, how come?" He explained that he has met Christians before who break down in front of him because they are sad that they will not see him in heaven. We quickly told him that our first goal is to love, and we were not even thinking of that at all. He told us that loving others is his goal too.

Everyone that went on the Boston trip were beasts. they all loved Jesus dearly, and so did Molly. She started explaining how Jesus saves. Which made Jester bring up a question I had never heard before, "How does Jesus save?"

There it was, time for me to tell this guy my testimony. Suddenly joy fills in my heart and I can't help but smile. I began with my background and how messed up I am. I explained how much I get wrong. Basically, before I met Jesus, I was a broken. Jester immediately stopped me when I kept saying how much I sucked. "You are NOT horrible, you're beautiful, the world is beautiful." And we tried to explain the sinfulness of man and he began to put on a very troubled face.

He asked us, "How in the world can you say a little newborn baby is sinful?"
I'll be honest, I can't even remember how or if Molly and I replied to that question. I'm sure we did, but i remember how it got to me. Later, after we spoke to Jester, Molly and I talked about how crazy that question was. Not us saying we know it all, because we don't, we just were not prepared to answer that. Then Psalm 51:5 cleared my mind.

I continued my testimony. And after i finished, he put a smile back on his face. He loved the story, but still stuck to his beliefs. Soon after he even explained how no matter what religion or god we claim, everyone will be together in heaven one day. We soon figured out that he believed in all religions. I totally forgot the name for that religion, for now we can call it etc. Molly continued to explain that what we have as Christians is not religion, it's a relationship, and finally Jester came to the conclusion that we believed in different things.

Though we believed in two different things, Jester and I agreed on something. He told us that he knows that his reason to be in Harvard Square was to love the orphans & homeless that live in it. He looked out for them and gave them hugs when he would see them. He got drunk with them and cried with them. He shared his food and went to church with them. A Muslim guy passed by and Jester literally told him that he would go to mosque with him the upcoming weekend. Everyone in the Pit, loved Jester, because Jester loved them for who they were.

When I told Jester about my testimony and how much of a sinner I am, his bad theology was actually an encouragement. He told me that everyone in the world is beautiful. To him, people alone are perfect, where most of the world sees the people of the Pit as useless. Jester saw more to them. Because of this, I think that he gets right what many of us fail to do, over and over again.

I'm not saying that Jester is a Christian, I'm just saying that he does more Christian things than actual Christians (beside getting drunk and going to mosque obviously). Jester loves these people despite themselves or their problems or their sin. Just as Jesus looked at the prostitute in John 8, Jester looked at these people. But, Jester's love wasn't genuine; He didn't know what true love is.

We smiled and told Jester that we were here to do the same thing he was doing, to love on people. At the same time, I know that my love for others isn't true love. My good deeds are just good deeds without Christ. My love will never be fully unconditional though I am constantly being sanctified. I will never love the world the way it needs to be loved, and the truth is, that Jester cannot either. That is why we need Jesus.

Love has a voice, and it's not mine. Love has a name, and it's not Mitchell. It's the red letters in The Book. It's Jesus.  1 John 4:19- We love because He first loved us.

So if you do not know that love, how can we equip ourselves to love others? Love without Jesus is just a car without an engine. It looks great, but it's really nothing. 1 Corinthians 13

After this long conversation, Molly and I had to leave with the rest of our team to head back to Watertown. Before we left, we were able to buy Jester and his friends some food and drinks from Starbucks, and they really appreciated it. We gave them hugs and were on our way, but I left with a question on my shoulders that God now asks me everyday when I make an action: Is this true love? Or is it your love?

(to be continued)