Being the body

I'm currently reading “Basic Christianity” by John R. W. Stott. It's a fascinating look into the very tenets of faith we as Christians believe. While reading tonight, I came across a passage that really struck me.

The tendency of sin is centrifugal. It pulls us out of harmony with our neighbours. It estranges us not only from our Maker but from our fellow creatures too. We all know from experience how a community, whether a college, a hospital, a factory or an office, can become a hotbed of jealousy and animosity. We find it very difficult 'to dwell together in unity'.

How true is this? Because of our basic nature of sin. we tend to push away those around us. We let petty jealousies and disagreements come between us and our fellow believers.I see this happening in my own church, especially with me. I sometimes get feelings of jealousy about why I'm not picked for certain things, or why people don't seek me out for anything, or how someone seems to get praise for things and I don't. It's stupid, junior-high level thinking, and it sickens me when I recognize it. It's all pride and self-importance. That sin pushes me away from others and makes me feel more alone than I ever was.

Centrifugal is defined as “Tending or directed away from centralization, as of authority”. Through our inherent sin nature, we are tending away from God and into the things of this world. That moving away from God's central authority leaves us to face our troubles alone, without Him. When we are pulled back into His orbit, we begin to associate again with His people. Which brings us to the next paragraph in the book.

But God's plan is to reconcile us to each other as well as to himself. So he does not save independent, unconnected individuals in isolation from one another; he is calling out a people for his own possession.

And there lies the solution. A people. Not us as individuals. It is our job as a corporate body to raise up each other, to pray for each other and to support each other. It's not up to us to make it by ourselves. We must bind ourselves together with others in the body.

For years my wife and I went from church to church and never really put down roots anywhere. After moving to the town we live in now, it took almost a year before we found a church we really enjoyed. God led us to this church through a series of circumstances and we've really put down stakes and stuck with it. I think part of it is Collette and I maturing as we entered our 30's, but we really have felt a calling to be here, now. We were allowed to lead a home group for a year, and now a youth group is starting.

The home group was successful not because of us or because of the curriculum we bought, but because of the people in it. Just like our church is successful not because we have a nice, big facility (we don't, it's a rented 47 year old bank building that's getting to be too small). We have great people in our church. People who are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to do what they know God has called them to do. People who truly try to be a people of God. I'm blessed that God has chosen us to serve in this church for a season, however long that season may be.