Do I Know You?

Sometimes we Christians just don't see things. We are deliberately blind because seeing would kill our Jesus buzz.  Obvious problems are ignored because their roots are so deep and rooted in decades of a 'move along, there's nothing to see here' attitude; or, 'let's ignore this until it becomes a public, church-wide problem'. This kind of thing happens in evangelical churches all the time. We fail to help someone because we are so caught up in our own personal realities or we do not want to get involved or we think it's none of our business. That is, until whatever it is becomes a problem for everyone.

As the Black Crowes en-tuned all those years ago, "I Am Seeing Things For the First Time..."

When someone belongs to a church and they are what you call a lifer, meaning they have been there since infancy, you would think that the other members would know them, really know them, be involved in their life in sharing of personal issues and personal problems. Indeed, you would think that churches in general should function this way as the Body of Christ on Earth.

But no..we do not. We tend to treat each others' symptoms, but we never work on the disease. We do not want to step up and step out to help. It's not comfortable. Giving our Christian neighbor a leg up when he or she needs one is not always a spiritually uplifting experience. It can be tough and messy, especially if our help is not immediately desired. And so we hire professionals to do this for us. The pro may not have the same intimate connection with the brother or sister in question, but we want them to clean up the mess so we do not have to. We report spiritual issues to them and think it is not our responsibility to talk to whoever about whatever.

I would submit that this is the wrong approach. Do we not owe it to each other to minister to each other and see to one another's needs no matter how difficult and daunting those needs might be?

We need to be a kingdom of priests in ministry to each other and not sheep all nursing at the teat of the local professional God Botherer.

So how am I doing this? How am I modeling this fantabulous plan of mine to heal all the ills of the local church and model what I think is right?

I am doing nothing. Yes, that's right. I'm right there with the other lambys trying to get my spiritual handout and telling on the other lambs that bother me in my pursuit of a meal.

So how do we break this cycle? By breaking it.

I do not know my brothers and sisters all that well. I always assumed they did not want to know me all that well, so I never burdened them with who I really am until about a year ago. It went pretty well. I did not get thrown out, but only a few check on me to see if I'm having any difficulty in my walk with Jesus. And really, it only takes a few.

I guess my point is that we do not know each other all that well and I wonder if we really do want to know each other. Why do we fear this? Why do we want to keep our worms in a can off stage on Sunday so no one can see them? If there are worms, people need to go fishing. Just my thought.

It was suggested yesterday that I start by taking someone to lunch.

Who wants to go to lunch? I will buy.  You will have to talk. It takes me awhile to get warmed up.

So...

Are we seeing each other through a mirror darkly or are we seeing each other face to face?

It is what we make it. Right?