I still remember my wedding day, when my beautiful bride, now of nearly 39 years, came through the door of the church on her dad’s arm…I nearly swooned from the beautiful sight I beheld. Connie and I had gone through much to arrive at that day. There were hurts, and heartaches along the way, but forgiveness and genuine love for each other carried us through to a relationship of belonging, and acceptance, and love. My love for my bride has not weakened in the years that followed. When we would begin to build up walls and barriers to protect our hearts from hurt, we found that wouldn’t work long. We did much better when we were open and vulnerable to each other. So, no matter what came our way…we stayed with each other, and helped each other…doing life together.
The church needs that same powerful commitment to relationship. God wants to have a relationship with Himself and His creation that would cause the world to swoon. People walk through the doors of our churches for a lot of different reasons, but ultimately they stay for only one reason…they have cracked the near impregnable wall of cliques and clusters, and have been able to establish relationships with others. When we have been joined and fitted together rightly in relationship, we will put up with all kinds of our church craziness. But, without relationship, or having the sense that no one really gives a rip about us, or that we won’t be accepted for who we really are, we will bail at the first sign of trouble. Don’t you think it’s time that we Christians come to terms with our incredible need for belonging and acceptance?
Ultimately it is all about our relationship with our Heavenly Father. It is true that we must be in constant pursuit of a deeper revelation of God’s unconditional love and acceptance of us as His children. But, this seem to me to be where we’re missing something. We are also to be our Father‘s expression of love to each other. Think about it…what better way is it that we receive God’s love for us than through another’s loving touch, or kind and caring words, or selfless actions?
Jesus clearly understood this principle. During his ministry on this earth he was a living and breathing testimony of how we’re to conduct ourselves as a follower of Christ. Did Jesus ever wall off his heart from others so he could avoid further injury than which he was already receiving from the religious leaders? Did Jesus make it a point to avoid any meaningful relationships in order to avoid rejection? No, he kept putting himself out there….serving the needs of others, healing the sick and lame, and ministering compassion with all who came to Him through up close and personal contact. Indeed, Jesus would often get away to escape the constant drain of ministry so He could spend some uninterrupted time with his father. Yet, once recharged and strengthened, he just kept coming back for more, even to the point of enduring torture, humiliation, and death as His final demonstration of love for others.
I cannot help but believe that our Lord is saddened by the relational superficiality that so many believers are currently experiencing in their local church. When it comes right down to it, what or who is to blame for this relational breakdown is probably a mute point…but, for pastors like myself, and other church leaders, it is our responsibility to do something about it. And, it always seems to come down to this…more often than not, it starts with us. Church leadership seems to provide plenty of opportunities for relational strife and personal heartbreak. Way to many pastors, myself included, have had to fight off the natural tendency of becoming overly protective of our heart in order to survive… and the walls go up. But, erecting impenetrable walls of protection around our hearts can lead to an even greater problem than the outside assault…it well eventually result in love starvation, and an overwhelming sadness or anger toward others…and maybe even towards God…after all, it was He who called us into this.
It seems as if the church need some emotional restoration effort for its people. Christianity simply must be lived from the heart. If we ever hope to accomplish anything of eternal value, our passions and our emotions must be fully engaged and alive both vertically and horizontally…toward God and toward people. If we find ourselves going about our Christianity like we’re killin’ snakes…trying to do all the right things,… running from one ministry to another,… while our primary motivation is our sense of obligation or duty, we likely won’t last very long. And, if in the middle of all that business in the Lord’s work, we get our emotions stepped on and choose to remain offended, or refuse to seek healing for those wounded emotions,… we are a sitting duck for our enemy who knows that if he can get us to close off our heart…he’s got us. It only takes a little un-forgiveness and soon he has succeeded in knocking us out of the race.
1 Peter 2:4-5 tells us that Jesus was the original “…living Stone rejected by men”, and that “…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” If you feel rejected, you have to understand that you’re not the only one in that boat. You’re in pretty good company. Rejection seems to be like a right of passage for us to achieve true spiritual authority. And, somehow or other, through the process of having our heart repeatedly wounded and healed… it becomes stronger, and maybe even a little softer at the same time. I am finding that in the times when I am unwilling to be vulnerable with the Lord or with others…I am soon headed to the altar for confession…because it is a sign that I have lost my trust in my Father’s sovereignty and loving care and watchfulness over me.
The local church is that spiritual house built with living stones. And, just like the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed…with many of its stones burnt and scarred by the ravages of battle… in order for you and I to function properly, or even to survive for that matter, we cannot be rebuilt by leaving our burnt and scarred hearts laying in the rubble…we must be connected to one another…not just organizationally, but at the heart level. The local church must regain its place of being a refuge for those in need of emotional restoration… it must return to being a place where the building of meaningful relationships is a top priority…instead of building personal agendas, structures, and programs.
As individuals, we must pursue a deeper revelation of our Father’s unconditional love and acceptance for us so that we can receive that kind of genuine love and give to others. It is only when we lay ourselves before the Lord and allow ourselves to become vulnerable to His touch that we can find the kind of intimacy that we all secretly long for. It seems as if our poor treatment of one another, our uncompassionate heart toward those who reach out to us in great need, and even our faulty perceptions of how we might feel the Lord has treated us, we can find ourselves prone to relational superficiality. But friends, we simply must resist this tendency. Our spiritual life really depends on it. Our ability to function as an integral member of the body depends on it. The fulfillment of our spiritual destiny depends on it. We need a renewed focus on the value and importance of maintaining a deep, heartfelt relationship…not only with our Lord, but with our fellow man.
"Jesus we really need some help here. Lord, I know we all want to serve You with an open heart. Please heal our emotional wounds. Tear down the walls we have built to protect our hearts. Heal your church Lord. Heal the bride so fully that her beauty will cause the heavens and the earth to just swoon! Give us Your great love for others, and strengthen our trust in You that we may do as You have taught us…to Love God…and love others. Amen."
No comments:
Post a Comment