A goth goes into a church....

...And immediately you think that this is definitely going to be a bad joke.

There was this person I met once at a church back home. He was really tall, had his eyes painted with black eyeliner, his ears pierced more than mine, pentagrams dangling from his neck, spiked bracelets, his clothes were all black, his shirt depicted some horrible satanic album cover and he had tattoos everywhere where the sun hit his skin. He looked fierce!

You could tell he felt like a sore finger, sitting between the flower dresses and the colorful sweaters. You could tell he felt really out of place. But he stayed through the whole service. After about 2 hours of a whole congregation staring at him more than the pastor, he decided to accept God as his savior and he walked to the front. It was a great moment! I will never forget the sight of the goth kneeling in front of the pastor. Even kneeling he looked bigger and a lot more menacing than our preacher.

We will fast forward to about 5 years later.
I saw the goth again. He had come to visit and had brought some prostitutes with him as well. Needless to say, the people sitting around them felt uncomfortable. None of them fit in with the normal Sunday dress code.
But Goth had a lot more awesome in store! He had come to tell us his testimony and what he had been up to all that time since he had converted. He still had tattoos everywhere, wore the same piercings, but he had a simple black shirt on. His hair was cut back, actually fitting his style but it was clean. He looked like somebody very happy in his own skin. He glowed and didn't exude the fierceness that had impressed me before.
He told us that he had gone back to that part of the city where not many people dared to go, but since he was such a big guy, nobody messed with him. He told us how he quit magic to serve God. He told us about how his drug-addict friends one by one accepted Jesus. How he started preaching to the prostitutes and transvestites in his neighborhood and they also accepted Jesus. He talked about how no normal preacher would understand the "subculture". But he was one of them. He was known and respected. He was the perfect servant to God. He was the perfect vessel to connect and understand and share God with the people who needed Him the most. Sorry, but the joke was on us. This goth had more God in him than many people who had been born in a Christian home.

When Jesus hung out with people, they were not the clean and normal. They were the damaged. They were the prostitutes and the goths, the homeless, the sick, the prisoners and the outcasts. But he had a point and a purpose. Jesus didn't see with our eyes. He did not see the tattoos or the piercings, the hairstyles or brand of clothing. He saw what really matters: the heart. Since we brought Jesus up, let's talk about how the King of Kings was not born in a castle. Let's talk about how He wore plain clothes and learned to craft wood instead of having a multitude of servants robe him in gold. Talk about misconceptions! Jesus couldn't care less about looking sharp, He just cared that the people who surrounded him had a willing heart, a heart ready to follow Jesus and give back the love that they received.

Now, as mere humans, we are prone to a lot of instinctual preconceptions of others. But we can learn to see with the eyes of Grace. We can learn to read people by their actions. Just like it says in Matthew 7:16: By their fruit you will recognize them.

Ever since I got to know the goth, every time I sit in a bus at night and look at people, I see that God loves them too. I see that they are in as much need of Him as I am. I have no idea what they are going through but I don't judge people by what I think looks pretty on them anymore. The most scary looking guy might just be the next Godsent! Why should I be judging them as inferior? Never judge a book by its cover.

Have you had an encounter with somebody who has totally shot your misconceptions out the window? Tell me about it!