What the heck are we doing?
Christian A: “Good morning, brother! How are you today?”
Christian B: “Excellent, brother! Too blessed to be depressed!”
Christian A: “Amen to that, friend!”
Beneath the veneer…
Christian A is: struggling with depression, a boring marriage, his porn habit, his lack of engagement with his kids, a job that he doesn’t like, and a faith that has grown stale.
Christian B is: thinking about cheating on his wife, bitter about his career path, unsatisfied with his income, angry about his boring pastor, and worried about his promiscuous daughter.
Don’t drink that beer! Don’t vote for that Democrat! Don’t watch that movie! Don’t listen to that band! Don’t shop at that store! Don’t wear that dress!
Yes…there are important issues regarding holiness, sanctification, and purity…but I think that if Jesus were to come back and preach a revival to us Christians in America there would be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth…not about the state of the nation, but about the state of the Church…the state of our own souls.
Where is our joy? Where is our love for the lost? Where is our love for each other? Where is our love of service? Where is our willingness to break bread with sinners? Where is our forgiveness and patience and gentleness and humility? Where is yours? Where is MINE?
When I am feeling like this I can really relate to the Apostle Paul. He was advancing in personal holiness, but still struggling. He was desperate for the health of the Church but also desperate over his own sin. He did what he shouldn’t do and didn’t do what he should. He worried about being heavy-handed but was afraid to stay silent. He was definitely working out his salvation with fear and trembling while at the same time full of the boldness that only comes from the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul was engaged in an intense battle, both inwardly and outwardly, and was fighting to hold on to his joy in the midst of trials and tribulations…all the while beginning EVERY one of his letters with a loving greeting and “grace to you.” Where is OUR grace towards each other? Where is OUR grace towards the lost? Grace that unlocks the tough conversations and leads to deliverance and healing. Grace that unlocks the chains of condemnation and leads us into the fields of loving conviction, not at the hands of one another, but at the nail-pierced hands of a gentle Savior? Grace that makes us unusually attractive to the lost sinner who is too afraid of the Church’s condemnation to ever open up about their lives. Grace that accurately reflects the love of the Savior who chose to hang on a cross in the nude for the very people who nailed Him to it?
And after all of this…Jesus doesn’t love me any less? I don’t get that, but I certainly should be changed by it.
Dear Lord…help me to make it so.
