Tariffs

Maybe unwilling. But every now and then, there’s this nudge. Not loud. Just the Holy Spirit whispering, “Why not him?” “Why not her?” We don’t always say it out loud, but let’s be honest. Most of us have a “not them” list. The people we’ve mentally placed outside God’s reach. Too far gone. Too difficult. Too… different.

It could be the guy who always smells like weed. The aunt who scoffs at anything church-related. Or maybe it’s someone closer. Someone who hurt you.

Deeply.

And so, we set up tariffs. Emotional ones. Walls that are expensive to cross. Walls that even grace struggles to scale. We call it “boundaries,” but sometimes, if we’re honest, it’s just cold distance dressed up in religious language. We pray from afar. Hope someone else says something. We assume they’re not interested...when in truth, we’re the ones who aren’t. And the Spirit keeps nudging. Not to preach. Not to argue. Just… to see. To stop. To care.

Jesus once told a story. You know it. A man was left beaten, bleeding, discarded on the roadside. And two religious men—God’s men—walked by. Not with cruelty. Just… avoidance. And then came someone unexpected. A Samaritan. An outsider. He stopped. He stepped across lines, absorbed the cost, and became the neighbor.

Here’s the truth I’ve been wrestling with. Sometimes, I’m the priest on the road. Sometimes, I’m the Levite. I know the verses. I know the mission. But when love gets inconvenient or awkward, I cross the road. Not out of malice. Just hesitation. But Christ didn’t hesitate with me.
And today, He might be calling me—calling us—to cross back over. To tear down the tariffs. To love without calculating the cost. Because the ark isn’t just for the cleaned-up and the put-together. It’s for the hard to love. The hard to reach. And yes… even the ones we’ve quietly given up on.

So here’s the question I’ll leave you with. Who’s bleeding out on the side of your “road-to-doing-something-else” today? And what would it take… to cross over?