Marti talked yesterday about “reaching outside the walls of ourselves” and I tremble a little when I hear that. I am so aware of those protective walls when I am around others. I like to stay in my shell. I come out in a calculated way when there’s an audience, but outside of that, those “walls of ourselves” keep me safely inside.
I might try and explain this away as a personality trait: I just happen to be an introvert. Not much you can do about that. But I don’t see any allowances for that in the scriptures. It’s not just extroverts who are called to love their neighbor and act outside themselves like the Good Samaritan. It’s all of us.
Something drove Jesus out of himself and all the way to the cross thinking not of himself, but of every one of us. What was that? It was love. “God so loved the world that He gave…” (John 3:16).
Once he looked out over the great holy city and said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37).
Jesus saw the multitudes of people as fields that were ripe for harvest (John 4:35). He was constantly attuned to the people around him, so much so that he could even tell when a woman touched him in faith seeking healing (Matthew 9:21).
What does it take to become this aware? What does it take to become other-oriented? It takes getting outside those walls. Identify with those around you. It doesn’t take much… a smile, a kind word, a leading question. Just make sure you start with those closest to you. You may find that’s where it is the hardest.
John Fischer The Catch 
Thanks for this, John. I can relate because I’m an introvert too.
I enjoyed your devotional today. Anytime you talk about love it is a topic close to my heart. I have come to learn that one cannot share the Love of God without first coming to know and experience the Love of God in their heart, soul, and mind. When we are filled with the Love of God through the study of His Word, it is only natural that His Love will flow our of our heart to others. In fact, when we are full of the Love of God, we have to choose to hold it back instead of having to choose to share it. Oh how my heart burns to share the Love of God. “The Love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell:” – Frederick M. Lehman (Amen! to that)
John, as always, I enjoy your insight. I thank God for the decades of friendship and kinship that we share as brothers from the “first wave” of the Jesus Movement. (Yeeeeeeeeeees! Afrikans flashback …….)
When I was reading “Outside The Walls,” I was reminded of two incidents in God’s Word that have brought life to me regarding that saying.
One is found in Genesis 49:22. It is from a declaration from Jacob concerning his son Joseph.
“Joseph is a fruitful bough. A fruitful bough by a well. His branches run over the wall.”
Is there a more beautiful, prophetic statement regarding what Joseph was to become to his family and a nation? His fruit went outside the walls of what he could have ever attained for himself, or his family, or the nation, had he just remained a servant in the confines of his fathers domain.
Secondly, a equally beautiful thought is available to us in the closing verses of the book of Acts.
“Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house; and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” (Acts 28:31-32)
I find it fascinating that the gospel message of Jesus Christ was unchained to spread throughout the modern world from a contained man under house arrest from an rented apartment in Rome.
Today, many of us may find ourselves in a pit, sold out by a loved one (s), or feeling trapped behind emotional walls in a life without freedom. Perhaps you have lost confidence in your ability to go “outside the walls” because fear has destroyed your faith and confidence of who you are in Christ. No doubt, the voice from the “accuser of the brethren,” is spewing the evidence of your disappointing sins and your heavenly Father’s displeasure with you to the jury in the cloistered courtroom of your mind.
Let me encourage you to rebuke that lie. The enemy seeks to steal, kill and destroy. Your life, and mine, warts and all, is a testimony to the certainty that we all need a Savior. Neither Joseph, or Paul, were able to generate anything of eternal value from their own resources. They were ordinary men, like you and I, with an extraordinary God. Why should we expect anything differently for ourselves?
My closing thought is to encourage you to know that the quickest way to go outside the walls of your self imprisonment is summed up by Jesus himself in John 12:24, “Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but, if it dies, it produces much grain.” Further evidence is declared by Jesus in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Let us follow His example. Abide in Him and you can go outside the walls of yourself, walking in boldness from the power of the Holy Spirit to be His witness, (Acts 1:8), bearing much fruit for His glory.
Enjoy the journey with Him ……….
In Jesus love,
Paul Clark
P.S. Not to “self-promote” after declaring the joy found from dying to ones self, but if your interested, go to this link on my web site and listen to the song, “Abide.” It is a simple, but beautiful song, that I pray will bring you further encouragement.
http://paulclarkmusic.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=64)
(Also, if anyone know if that place is still for rent I’ll be happy to sign up for two years of preaching in Rome ……. LOL!)
Everybody who comes by should read this. It is wonderful. Thank you brother Paul! (sorry it took me a while to find it and post it.)
“What does it take to become this aware?” As a fellow introvert, I can attest that becoming aware of others (and their needs) starts with time alone with God. For an introvert, time alone with God (rather than time alone with oneself) is one step towards relationship building. Once this time alone with God blossoms, then love for Him and empowerment by Him (the Holy Spirit) helps an introvert like me want to interact and build relationships with others – even those others that are close to me and hardest to connect with. As an introvert, I see time alone with God as building on a relationship that encourages my growth of building relationships with others around me.