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Seriously
by kathryn johnson It is no fun having a bumbling idiot among the ranks. Who can trust him. Who can bear her. He is the butt of many jokes. He is whispered about and kept "out." There is no more brilliant plan for teaching us to suffer long with and for that bumbling idiot, than to get us face to face with our own. We will spend more time battling our own creep within than we will fighting some abstract generality of an enemy. Likewise, we will spend more time dealing with the sore spots of intimacy among the ranks than we will in solitary pursuits in the world. There is no use denying that I am a coward. There is no use denying that I prefer lusting in my heart to training my mind. And there is no use denying that I am the weakest link. Instead of saying farewell to our desire for sin, we are commanded to follow His lead. In the church, we want comradery. Well, it will cost us each and every one. The thing about our Commander is that He will let us walk around in denial for as long as we like. In fact, He will extend to us this dignity. Simon Peter was afforded just such a dignity. A dignity so intimate that Christ included in his challenge the following, "...and when you have turned back you must strengthen your brothers." There is no use thinking that we can strengthen our sister by virtue of our own strong best. There is no use thinking we can encourage our brother by virtue of our superiority to him. We must be all finished with our weak and silly claims to power, before ever beginning to genuinely strengthen our comrades. After all, "...in my weakness He is shown strong." Our most formidable task will be found in the command to keep the unity and morale of the troops. This being the case, we yet experience this tendency toward the trend of exclusivity. And, at once, we find within the body of Christ all these independent and whirring circuits that others have trouble penetrating. Perhaps we feel the need to be on our guard. But from whom are we guarding this trust handed down to us, anyway? Should it be the spiritual klutzthe late to bloom of grace? This is not the one from whom we should withhold the trust. For under the burden of such a bright and breakable trust is precisely where we want her to be. Remember? what was it that got you to take your religion more seriously if not the identification of another taking you seriously? Once a man is taken seriously, he will become much more serious himself. If we truly are members of the same Christ's body, then shall we walk in the footsteps of another? Though Christ was not lower than we, He became lower for us. Christ was our model. And although we could not be trusted any further than we could be dragged, He yet trusted us. Rich Mullins once noted that God never came up with a Plan B for His church. Christ handed the trust to you and he handed it to me; and you and me became that uncomfortable and confrontational thing called "we." I think we fear the apostate. The apostate frightens us all for good cause. We are protective of this trust, after all. But how many are never given the opportunity to serve and belong because of our fear? We cannot seek to protect the blessed sheep by preventing the very sheep we seek to protect from being let into the heart of things. We cannot fear taking him into the very heart of things that awakened even the canonized saints from their dejected places of human-wide apostasy. We were all apostatesrebels with tiny fistsbefore we were called in. Apostasy is the very thing we were all called from. What if my brother is just too needy and 'tag-along?' If my brother is needy, why not get beneath that neediness? For in placing myself beneath my brothers screaming neediness I am placing myself in the only place that I can go in order to make him finally believe me when I tell him that he is legitimate. Every one of us is scrambling for this one scheme which finally cures much of our maladjustment. We think we want popularity or power or status. It is far too embarrassing for us to admit that what we really want is for that one person to finally take us to heart. To be taken seriousdreadfully serious. I am not shaming my brother when I get beneath his screaming neediness. I am showing him that I am no less sinful than he. I am not bringing him face to face with his own criminality; I am bringing him face to face with another hardened criminal. And what do you suppose that does to your fellow comrade? Well, for one, it show him that you mean business. It shows him you value him. It gives to him that one thing we are all scrambling for. If I am administered a swift kick for unwittingly burdening the cross of a wolf, so be it. I'd rather remember that I too was a wolf once. Even Christ advised us not to go pulling weeds. He said we'd inadvertently pull up the wheat if we did. Therefore, if we want the comradery we must do these two simple things. Be ever pricking those little exclusive circles we tend to create. And, begin to take each other so seriously that we willingly allow ourselves to bear beneath our brother's and our sister's and, yes, even our neighbor's future honor and glory. My name is kate. I have been a Christian for 19 years. I enjoy reading, writing and arithmetic. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |