As I re-read the last post, I realize that I may have come across as angry. I spent some time this morning reflecting on the post and what transpired to even write it.
I have been reading a lot of scripture regarding "being Christlike" and yesterday maybe I felt a bit like Jesus in the Temple...overturning tables. I also felt a bit like a prophet, unaccepted in his own country!
So I apologize for one comment that I made in my previous post. The comment about waiting till an emergency.
Each person is on a journey of understanding and with that comes their own ways of procuring wisdom and understanding and sometimes that comes out of the blue. Sometimes we are taken by surprise, something that we had not expected. We may even think we have had some teaching and have learned something and then "wham" it hits us with a shot to our stomachs, knocking the wind out of us. In that moment we seek out others to support and help care for us. That is a great part of being in the Body. That we have others we can go to and find love and care...and support. What is important isn't "the right answer" or even "how to respond" but in actuality, it is learning to love and learning to be loved, even in the wrong answers and when we don't respond well.
I love the Body of Christ and I am part of it. I think of it in terms of a bride, preparing for her BIG wedding. She plans, prepares, sends out invites, looks for flowers, but also prepares herself. She pampers herself, maybe getting a manicure, pedicure, gets her makeup and hair done. She is planning the perfect dress, the perfect atmosphere and setting to marry her true love. She waits. She waits with baited breath and adorns herself. She holds on to her purity like a treasured gift to be given away. I have to think of myself as this bride...a bride who is looking to purify and get rid of all that hinders me in the "upcoming wedding" that is to take place. It is living in this tension of the world and my own humanness and broken places. I realize just how much I need Jesus. How desperate and sinful I really am.
I also realize that because of my own experience within the body of Christ "the church", I can also become hard in my response to it. I can begin to judge it, to dissect it, to try to hurry it along, trying to WAKE them UP...when in reality, that is the Holy Spirit's work...not mine. I'm called to encourage, love and applaud them in their own calling...and sometimes to even admonish (to reprove gently but earnestly. To counsel (another) against something to be avoided; caution...from www.thefreedictionary.com)
This is all part and parcel of discipleship. To be on guard, to walk with one another, to love and extend mercy and grace in radical ways...all the while holding fast to strong theological truth!
Just as much as what I hope and dream for the body of Christ (the church), I dream and hope for me! I am the Church and I am part of this amazing body. With flaws, with scars and with a tenacity to want us to be ALL that WE CAN BE! To be the healing community that looks past our own "need" and sees another. I am part of the solution...you are part of the solution and the best part of the whole equation is that we have an amazing gift of the holy spirit to help us and guide us. We have an amazing Father who loves us despite of ourselves, and a savior who is our advocate, who has made us all equal at the cross.
So, encourage a friend, love your enemy and tell someone you love them today, be it by word or deed.
2 comments:
Oh Kenn!@ Right on! Sometimes I want to "whack" the church upside the head and say "Come ON people!!! WAKE UP!" and then I realize that I am just as needy of the loving "whack". LOL! I am so thankful Jesus is the one that is in charge, ultimately. We are all on the spiritual journey at different phases of understanding. Walking together and lending a helping hand and pushing each other on in love is totally where we need to be. I know the North American church is really falling down on so many aspects of this job, but it also starts with US. I think we are starting to "get it". I really do. We have been slow to wake up. But we are getting there....hopefully not too late. Jesus is never too late though.
Good good work Kenny. I didn't think you had come across angry in your last post...
I believe some people are called into a place of being watchmen and calling people towards holiness and like the parable of the bridesmaids in Matt 25:1-13... some are called to stir up the body of Christ, exhorting her to be prepared and alert, to be ready for the appearance of her bridegroom.
It can be frustrating to be in such a place while seeing so many in slumber mode but without those stirring the body of Christ awake there may be a few bridesmaids not ready for the appearance of her bridegroom. It can be frustrating and challenging... it can be complicated as we learn to discern between our role and the role of Holy Spirit but one thing is for certain, we need the voices of those who are stirring awake the body of Christ.
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