Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck starts his book “The Road Less Traveled” by saying, “Life is difficult”. Yes indeed. I would add “life together is difficult" but it is part of what makes it interesting and worth living too.
Relationships whether in the Church or in a marriage or a friendship can be trying and testing but I believe this is how we grow, how God shapes us. How else shall we become more like Christ, sanctified, made holy, if we are never subjected to anything challenging? How are we to learn compassion, love, forgiveness unless we are “field tested?”
A friend talked about life together tonight, especially life together as the people of God, the Church. German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer has a whole book about some of this called “Life Together.” I've only read parts of it. I need to read it again in its entirety.
Life together as the people of God is challenging. Nothing new here. Just read the Bible and you realize that life together as the body of Christ, the Church, has never been smooth sailing. Struggles came from within and from without in the form for internal divisions, bickering… Even with Jesus we are still a bunch of goofs after all.
Challenges came from without, from economic hardship, from persecution. Persecution is still a very real issue for some of our brothers and sisters outside the United States. It is hard to imagine someone dying for their faith from the comfort of our lives here in this country. Persecution here in the US is more subtle… We don’t call it persecution. I have asked myself how I would react, what I would say if someone held a gun to my head and asked me to renounce Jesus or die.
In a less dramatic way, would I deny my Lord if that were a requirement to hold a job and survive?
Here we are challenged in other ways. A thousand subtle temptations assail us daily. Will we bow to popular and politically correct things which go contrary to the teachings and ways of Jesus? In some ways, I think we do that anyway, because we are so immersed in our culture, often despite ourselves. Some things which should never be normal and acceptable have become normal and acceptable.
There are amazing blessings in sharing our lives that, in my book, surpass the struggles of being together. My marriage has shaped me in ways that I would never have been shaped if I had not been married to my husband. The good times, the really difficult times...
Living as a follower of Jesus with other followers of Jesus has shaped me in ways I am still trying to grasp. I have been able to open my heart to another human being in ways I had never done before I had committed my life to Jesus. in ways which still surprise me sometimes, in ways which bless me because I have felt safe sharing the deeper things of my life with these couple of people. I trust them with my life. People have opened themselves to me in ways I had not experienced before. That is a precious gift that I hold very dearly. Often I have felt myself to be on Holy Ground. I am who I am and I continue to become through through people and being together.
It is hard to be real. One of my favorite books is “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams Bianco. The toy Rabbit asked the old Skin Horse, as they conversed in the nursery:
““What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. ‘Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?’
‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’
‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.
‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’
‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’
‘it doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
I have hurt my friends at one time or another, never on purpose. They have hurt me at one time or another, not on purpose, often unknowingly. But we forgive and we keep loving and growing together. It is scary to allow someone to see your heart, way beyond the superficial veneer.
I am still trying to figure out some of my friends. Some don’t open their hearts easily. It’s taken years. I guess I don’t open my heart easily either. Trust must be there. It does take time. God continues to work with us and shapes us and molds us. We are all becoming through His love...
Relationships whether in the Church or in a marriage or a friendship can be trying and testing but I believe this is how we grow, how God shapes us. How else shall we become more like Christ, sanctified, made holy, if we are never subjected to anything challenging? How are we to learn compassion, love, forgiveness unless we are “field tested?”
A friend talked about life together tonight, especially life together as the people of God, the Church. German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer has a whole book about some of this called “Life Together.” I've only read parts of it. I need to read it again in its entirety.
Life together as the people of God is challenging. Nothing new here. Just read the Bible and you realize that life together as the body of Christ, the Church, has never been smooth sailing. Struggles came from within and from without in the form for internal divisions, bickering… Even with Jesus we are still a bunch of goofs after all.
Challenges came from without, from economic hardship, from persecution. Persecution is still a very real issue for some of our brothers and sisters outside the United States. It is hard to imagine someone dying for their faith from the comfort of our lives here in this country. Persecution here in the US is more subtle… We don’t call it persecution. I have asked myself how I would react, what I would say if someone held a gun to my head and asked me to renounce Jesus or die.
In a less dramatic way, would I deny my Lord if that were a requirement to hold a job and survive?
Here we are challenged in other ways. A thousand subtle temptations assail us daily. Will we bow to popular and politically correct things which go contrary to the teachings and ways of Jesus? In some ways, I think we do that anyway, because we are so immersed in our culture, often despite ourselves. Some things which should never be normal and acceptable have become normal and acceptable.
There are amazing blessings in sharing our lives that, in my book, surpass the struggles of being together. My marriage has shaped me in ways that I would never have been shaped if I had not been married to my husband. The good times, the really difficult times...
Living as a follower of Jesus with other followers of Jesus has shaped me in ways I am still trying to grasp. I have been able to open my heart to another human being in ways I had never done before I had committed my life to Jesus. in ways which still surprise me sometimes, in ways which bless me because I have felt safe sharing the deeper things of my life with these couple of people. I trust them with my life. People have opened themselves to me in ways I had not experienced before. That is a precious gift that I hold very dearly. Often I have felt myself to be on Holy Ground. I am who I am and I continue to become through through people and being together.
It is hard to be real. One of my favorite books is “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams Bianco. The toy Rabbit asked the old Skin Horse, as they conversed in the nursery:
““What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. ‘Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?’
‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’
‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.
‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’
‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’
‘it doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
I have hurt my friends at one time or another, never on purpose. They have hurt me at one time or another, not on purpose, often unknowingly. But we forgive and we keep loving and growing together. It is scary to allow someone to see your heart, way beyond the superficial veneer.
I am still trying to figure out some of my friends. Some don’t open their hearts easily. It’s taken years. I guess I don’t open my heart easily either. Trust must be there. It does take time. God continues to work with us and shapes us and molds us. We are all becoming through His love...
No comments:
Post a Comment