Fences and Walls

I was thinking yesterday, recalling a Christian song from the 1970s:

Good fences make good neighbors,

But a fence the church don't need.

And the Spirit's moving in the world

To bring His Body back in unity.

Fences and walls have their place and use, but the church, the Body of Christ, is not such a place. The fences the song spoke of are the excuses and pretexts Christians too often use to avoid acknowledging their brothers and sisters in Christ, to avoid fellowshipping with them, and to avoid serving God together. The song does not envision a Scripture-ignoring-and-denying Kumbaya-fest, just the kind of love, fellowship and shared service Jesus envisioned and commanded for His people.

The kind of walls I spoke of are deeper, walls we've each built within us, to isolate and "protect" us. Too often we put up prettified walls, facades we imagine make us look nice, cool, spiritual, together and so forth. By keeping people from knowing us, the real us, we evade real spiritual growth and real fellowship relationships. Growth comes in acknowledging what we are - imperfect and unique - and letting others be God's helpers and our partners in changing us, making us more like what God wants us to be. Growth comes in providing that very same loving service to our brothers and sisters - rather difficult if we are busy hiding.

Can we work a bit at tearing down some of our fences and walls, OK?

A Couple of Stray Thoughts

Those who don't take themselves too seriously are disappointed less often.

Utopian schemes – e.g. socialism, anarchism, anarcho-capitalism - ignore or deny that man is deeply flawed (or as Christians say it, sinful). This lesson was writ large in the blood of 10s of millions throughout the 20th century. Will we read, learn and take it to heart?

"Fearfully and Wonderfully Made ..."

An incredible universe - immense

The tiniest cell - a universe of intricacy

Knowledge and discoveries that could enthrall for life

Knowledge and discoveries that should ...

... lead me to the Designer

... cause me to worship the Designer

... birth in me a desire to seek and know ...

... the One Who designed ...

... the One Who made ...

... the One Who loves ...

... me

Through, Not Out Of

God has promised to be with, to provide for, to bless us. He has not promised to shield us from all suffering and difficulty. But He will bring us through all, sometimes by His "simple" love and grace, sometimes by expressions of His awesome power.

Miracles - Breaks in the Natural Order or Glimpses of What was Intended to Be

People, including Christians, are so accustomed to the way things are that we understand what we see to be the natural order of things. Not just in the present tense, but for all time past, back to the beginning of this universe, this space-time continuum. We think the way things are is the way God created and intended things to be. Christians, at least, should know better. God did not intend mankind to be sinful, yet here we are. And when Adam sinned, he not only brought sin to his descendants, but the nature of the very universe was changed.

Because of our incorrect view of things, we struggle with miracles, with what they are. Is God "violating" natural laws? Is God rending and patching the fabric of the space-time continuum? How do miracles not make a mockery of an orderly universe?

Could it be that the problem is not with God interfering with or violating the natural order, but of us not understanding What/Who God is? And what God intended to be the natural order of things without sin? The very nature of the universe and its relationship with God changed by sin. The universe was no longer entirely "good". While not rendered alien or an outsider, God no longer maintains the universe in the same way as before man's sin. Death entered. Pain entered. Disasters became part of the "natural" order.

Miracles are displays of God's might. Miracles demonstrate God's sovereignty. Miracles are exertions of God's creative power. Maybe, just maybe, could miracles be glimpses of what God intended to be the natural order?

Making Christian Unity Personal and Real

About a year ago I wrote a series of blog posts about the bases for Christian unity. Understanding Christian unity intellectually is important, but not an end in itself. But it is an important step. Truth needs to travel that 12 inches from the head to the heart, and then those several feet from the heart to the hands and feet. More simply, it needs to be made real, active.

So, how to discern a real believer from a "Garage Christian" (a person who is like a man standing in a garage claiming to be a car)? A caveat is important at this point. No human can truly and completely know another human's heart. So any conviction I might have about whether or not another person is a believer must be qualified by my acknowledgement that, "I might be wrong."

I can listen to what a person says. I can see what a person does. So if some one tells me that they believe in Jesus as their Savior, with apparent understanding of what that means, I tend to believe them. And I consider what I know of their manner of life, whether it is consistent with their profession of faith (keeping in mind that every Christian is a work in progress). If the understanding and consistency are there, I view that person as my brother or sister in Christ. I'm open to fellowship with that person, to working with them in ministry, as appropriate with what is being done.

In terms of real interactions with real people, this can (and has) challenged my prejudices. For example, I disagree with many teachings and practices of the Catholic Church. The disagreements are, in my understanding of Scripture, real and substantial. At the same time, my interactions with Catholics have forced two conclusions on me - things I would have acknowledged intellectually, but which became real through those interactions. First, there are are true believers - my brothers and sisters in Christ - among Catholics. Second, a believer is a believer, regardless of the sign in front of the building where that person goes on Sunday morning. I know, really profound! Fellow believers deserve my recognition, fellowship and aid in ministry - as those are appropriate. There are no second-class or junior believers. Obviously, there are areas where we would disagree, areas of fellowship and ministry where I could not participate (nor they with me). But that is NOT an excuse for avoiding that brother or sister!

I know, it's tough! I might have to (eek!) think. I might have to understand and be able to express what I believe. I might have to learn from that fellow believer. And by recognizing, fellowshiping and aiding, I may be forcing similar experiences on that fellow believer. Welcome to the Body of Christ! Doing it is much harder than reading about it. That's why we need Christ and the Holy Spirit living and working in us!

When Might-Have-Beens and Reality Collide

At my current employer, quite a few people have been there 20, 30, 40, even 50 years. I'll admit having felt a twinge of something close to envy. Since 1993 I haven't been at any employer as long as 4 years. The idea of 30 or 40 years of "stability" had a certain appeal. Last evening I started thinking of all the employers I've left or who have left me.

I've been laid off 5 times since 1993, so, obviously, staying longer at those places wasn't an option. Two of those 5 companies have either essentially disappeared or so changed that, either way, I would probably still have been laid off, just a few years later. Of the other three, one was so marginal that its survival is an ongoing uncertainty - a layoff looking for its time. And a fourth, the 75-mile daily round-trip commute was getting really old (though I liked my work, the company, its products and its people) - not a good long-term prospect.

Of the three companies I left of my own volition, two are essentially gone, and I would have been laid off (due to hard times or moving the company's operations), just later. And the third, well, I had lost faith in the quality of its product, tried and failed to drive a meaningful investigation into its quality, and I was miserable. So, none of those companies was a reasonable chance for a long-term stay.

Might-have-beens fare poorly in the face of cold, hard, rational, examination. God really does know best - in guiding our choices and in making our "choices" for us.