The Bald Goat

I want to continue this discussion about what it means to think of ourselves as ordinary people.  This was not intended to be a degrading comment, but possibly an idea that places us on equal ground to gain a perspective of our place in life…and our potential.  I think this continued conversation about ordinary people has many different points that all help us gain a different perspective on how we live life in this world filled with a bunch of ordinary people.

Lets look at a question to help us set the tone of this conversation and give us some roots.

Why do we put up with the people in our church?

I bet there are thoughts of people right now swimming through your head about people that bother you, anger you, hurt you, or annoy you at your church.  I mean there has to be at least one person that rubs you the wrong way.  We are human and we will have our issues, right?

So why do we put up with each other or maybe a better question, what enables us to put up with each other?

Love

It sounds simple, but can be so hard.  Lets look at the how Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.   Love never fails. (NIV)

I think we seriously grapple with many of these things.

love is patient…wow…and that was the first one!

Love does not keep a record of wrongs…really?

Love always trusts…come on!

If we can do this love stuff with our church family, then I think we can do anything!  I say this with a bit of sarcasm and a bit of truth.  This kind of love is the hardest thing that we struggle to do and if we as Christians were truely united with this kind of love the world would be a different place.

The world would be different.

I truly believe what I just said and I truly believe we fail to do this.  Why would there be so many different denominations if we could get along? Or better yet, why would there be so many different churches of the same denomination in one town if we could get along?  I understand the history of church planting.  Communities with a church on every corner, but that was 50 years ago.  Today, I would wager that the number one reason most churches are created today, or have been created in the past 20 yeas, is because we can’t get along with each other so we decide to take the easy way out and disassociate ourselves with our now former family.  We choose not to show love and instead choose to distance ourselves into two separate entities.

The voice of God cannot be heard over the roar of our debates and bickering.  The message of God never has the chance to reach the ears of the unbeliever because we fill the air with our message of discontentment with each other.

Because we don’t love each other enough to get along our efforts are not united to heal our hurting world.

Because we don’t love each other enough to get along the good news of God cannot be heard.

Because we don’t love each other enough.

Please take the time to experience the next post Ordinary People (part 2b) and leave a comment with your thoughts.