How Will They Know?
I have been invited to participate in a leadership group for the college ministry at my church. Two months ago I was seriously considering trying other churches, and it's odd how things change. All of the factors which at first prompted me to go elsewhere are still there, but I seem to have rounded a social corner with my peers. My status has changed from "weird and disturbing encyclopedic stranger" to "pleasantly quaint boat-rocker." I don't think I will ever escape the "not from around here" label, but it is gradually losing its stigma.My own heart has changed significantly as well. As I get to know and understand people better, I can see that I am here to love them, and it is through love that I might be able to make a permanent difference in their lives. If I'm going to sit through an entire church service thinking about all the ways I would do it differently, I have no right to turn down an opportunity to effect change through participation. Meanwhile, I cannot neglect the more important immediate goal of loving my brothers and sisters as Christ loves me.
Contrary to one of my favorite t-shirt slogans, they will not know we are Christians by our t-shirts. They will know we are Christians because we love one another, regardless of the weakness, brokenness, and sin in our lives. My life exists in order to be laid down for my friends. In doing so, I may fully understand the promises and commissions of my best Friend:
"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other."
posted by Lynn @ 7:22 AM
3 Comments:
you are 100 percent right on... i have been thinking about the body, and church membership, how that plays in... we will never find a church we are completely comfortable with, i don't think, but i do believe that if we know it is where God has placed us, and the doctrine being taught is not false, we are there for a reason. and i believe that those little differences are what keep us on our toes...
Well, I think you're awesome. But, then again, I'm not from around here either...
I like that you're a boat rocker and they're lucky to have you, chicka.
...Christians by our t-shirts...t-shirts...I saw one yesterday...one from the Diocesan Catholic Youth Conference. I was curious, so I hung around to hear about it. The wearer was one of the volleyball people, and I figured she had taken her son, which was actually cool with me. Apparently while she was there, she realized that most of the kids there are getting Catholic educations, so she's gonna send her son to Sacred Heart now instead of Lindsay. It's a long story to not really say much, but t-shirts can tell ya about a person's religion, but God sees the heart.
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