Trust, A friend – Want to be heard? Listen! – Not be Shaken – Administering Grace – A Church Loves

I grew up in a relatively large church in a relatively small city, and it set the paradigm for what a church should be like. I moved on to a bigger church in a giant city and was never comfortable, especially with the differences between it and my paradigm. Later, I moved to a smaller church still in the big city and found something different and better in it than my paradigm or experience. And finally, I went to something that bothered my paradigm, a church in a school with the message beamed in from elsewhere. I was on edge, but I found that same something here. What I found was a church that loves. My first church was about a church serves. My second church was about a church serves. What I learned was that a good church loves. It serves too, but it serves from love rather than duty.

In bible study this morning, we discussed the concept of needing to earn the right to be heard. I lump it in with the concept of if you want to be heard, listen. The idea behind both is that your audience is physically half of any communication. If you want them to learn from you or otherwise understand what you are saying, then you have to consider them. Yelling at someone to “Get down!” in English is not effective if they  do not speak English. Telling someone they need God to forgive their sin won’t mean much if they never heard of sin.

The phrase “Not be shaken” carries a different first impression than last week after my friend died. I do not mind being shaken as long as I do not die or become unwilling to help in the process. My guess is that I originally meant the verse or source talked about being able to deal with a situation without falling apart. Having had fallen apart, I now know being shaken is ok, but I know I can rely on God to get me through.

Trust, A friend. In reading the book Dune again, I read the term loyalty. It now has a different meaning for me after my friend called me disloyal and defriended me. What I interpret it to mean was that he did not like me being loyal to God above him. I know some of it was his wife and her displeasure to have to be faced with the fact she destroyed a marriage to have hers whenever she had to see or hear about me. But in the end, I was “loyal” to the call of God, and I feel it cost me my best friend. There is probably more to it than I will ever know, but I would still give up that friendship if it was required to follow God and any other sacrifice needed. If that makes me disloyal, then so be it.

I kept this for last. Or I procrastinated until there was nothing left. I feel like I have a handle on how to receive grace from God. But I feel like I have no understanding of how to administer it to those around me. I do not like stupid drivers. They make me mad, and I want to let them know. I also do not want to die from road rage, so I have a need to learn how to not act out my anger. My wife helped me with this the other day. I have a ways to go. My default is the concept of right of way. I am pleased to give it away, but I hate having it taken from me. I think grace is that aspect of being pleased to give it away after it has been taken that I am missing. Lord knows that I need a lot of grace, so maybe like in the Lord’s prayer where we forgive as we have been forgiven, I need to pray to show grace as I have been shown. Nothing like a hard home work assignment to start the weekend.