one cross, three wedges

over the course of my 28 years of being in church i've noticed quite a bit about people who claim the name of Christ. some of these people produce great good for the kingdom and therefore the world, and others tear people down and cause massive chasms of division.

some of you might know that i started walking with Christ when i was 20, in January of 2000. at that point in time life was beautiful, there was nothing that could bring me down off of my spiritual high. nothing could stop me from growing.

and then one day, i walked away from all of it...

church

God

Christ

anything that had a religious label i pushed away.

a couple of weeks ago i was watching some stand up comedy, which i love to do from time to time. now this particular stand up featured one comedian by the name of dennis miller. i love dennis miller. he's witty, charming, honest, and quite often brash.

he made a comment that i've been pondering for the last couple weeks and then as i was talking to one of my college professors last night, he said something that solidified my thoughts and where they were going.

dennis miller said that we always seem to make the small things out to be bigger than they actually are, or they actually need to be.

so, the past two weeks my mind has been on this thought pretty frequently. during this time, i've been preparing to help lead a discussion on one of the most debatable issues in christian thought -- war. what made the past few weeks terribly difficult is that God has begun to change my mind on a couple of issues dealing with the topic of war, and it has been a tough pill to swallow. i began to write down all of my questions and answers this week that came from my study and i felt myself thinking "how could i have thought this way for so long? have i been wrong the entire time i've been walking with God?"

last night i get an unusual phone call from my professor and mentor (he probably doesn't think of himself as a mentor, but he was). he began to encourage me about thursday night. we had been corresponding this week about the topic, which definitely helped in the preparation. i won't tell you all that he said but one of the most influential things he said was to not allow the topic to get people out of sync with the heartbeat of God because once our conversation has gone away from Him, we've no point in talking.

he also told me that people are all at different points in their journey with Christ. if our walk was marked by "points" and each point was a letter in the alphabet, some are at point "C" while others are farther along the path at point "Q". and perhaps these issues that people at point "Q" understand and have had the time to sift through, pray through, and come to a decision on are there because they've had the time, life experiences, etc. that are needed to get them to such a point. on the other hand, those believers at point "C", might not be ready to hear that argument yet. their faith might not be strong enough.

so is the person at point "Q" considered "right" and the person at point "C" wrong, because they are each able to come to a biblical decision based on where they're at in their journey? i don't think so.

too many times people debate, argue, fight, and in cases of history, shed blood all in the name of Christ over interpretations, thoughts, ideas. for us today, we don't think of shedding each others blood, we just tear down the church from the inside out; we cause division.

caleb rosier sent me a quote from the screwtape letters by c.s. lewis, in which a senior devil is talking to a junior devil on how to cause destruction of the human soul, and it basically says that if they (devils) can get people to be preoccupied with our ideas to such an extent where we then fall into the cycle of letting our "faith" play the role of supporting an idea, then they have us. at that point where our faith becomes the agent to back our small mind's ideas that we deem best, we've lost God and our religion of being "right" has become idolatrous.

i stepped away from God after i became a Christian. isn't that weird. it was the time when i was supposed to be diving deeper into His Word, Loving my neighbor, and caring for the ones who can't care for themselves. i stepped away because all i saw was christian men and women arguing with great conviction and passion that one side was right and the other was wrong.

it wasn't over issues that determines someone's salvation. it was over calvinism, arminianism, baptism, homosexuality, alcohol, war, music, books, movies, smoking, worship style, healing, tongues, prophecy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. what i saw happen was christians becoming enraged at other christians over topics that have been debated for centuries and yet they thought their view, which was based more from their upbringing and culture rather than scripture, was right.

but the cherry on top, so to speak, was when a local church in our area split because people within the church body spread talk that eventually drove a giant wedge in the church and that was all that was needed to divide.

i wonder how much of our time, or how much breath could be saved if we sat down with others and talked through issues instead of running away from them or getting so worked up and convinced we are the ones that are "right".

what if we decided to do the Biblical thing - humble ourselves, sit down with a person and discuss our grievances. or what if we simply walk alongside them, loving them, rather than trying to convince them that we're right and they're wrong.

we might actually come to find out that this "giant" issue that was once a massive wedge divinding us, keeping us from serving God together, was actually something so small we could flick it away like an unwanted bug crawling on our arm.

what if the big issues really aren't that big?

what if the debatable topics that are keeping us from serving together as one body, one community, aren't that important in the grand scheme of things?

what if we become less concerned with being "right" and more concerned with Loving others?

may we not be the one that creates division

may we see the world through Grace-filled eyes

may our hearts desire to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, love the unloved, and visit the imprisoned.

may we love those around us with the Love and Grace of Calvary.

peace be with you