Tuesday Re-mix –
…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. Ephesians 4:13-15
Step 7: We humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.
[I am using these Tuesday Re-mixes for a few weeks to think (again) about addiction to self-reliance and how that addiction is one of the biggest challenges to genuine community which we face in the American church culture.]
I have a dream…
…of breaking free from the shackles of self-reliance and resting instead in the sure hands of Christ and His Holy Spirit, looking to Him alone for my daily bread and for my affirmation and for my validation as a man and a father and a husband and a teacher and a vessel of His Spirit.
I have a dream…
…of escaping from the complexities I have created in order to preserve the lie that I have my life under control and that I am the perfect manager of my soul, a lie I have convinced myself to maintain in order to enjoy the approval of men, a lie I have obliged myself to tell in order to prevent anyone around me from having to deal with my true ugliness.
I have a dream…
…of tearing down the walls which divide my work life from my church life and my family life from my ministry life and my “Christian” friends from my “non-Christian” friends, all in order to change how I am from one life to the other without anyone seeing the hypocrisy of it all…walls which I thought would simplify my life but which have only complicated it beyond my control.
I have a dream…
…of letting go of the pretense and being truly known by a few close friends in my life, I mean TRULY KNOWN–all the secret sin and all the warts and ugly spots and Spiritual brokenness–and, being truly known, being nonetheless truly and unconditionally loved by those same friends.
I have a dream…
…of reaching beyond myself and truly knowing and truly loving those same few friends and nurturing them and praying for them and pressing them to become greater than they ever knew they could become and knowing that they are doing the same thing for me and that none of us…NONE OF US…is capable of doing this on our own.
I have a dream…
…of all of us in this virtual Tuesday support group actual recovering from our addiction to independence and self-reliance and learning to rest in Him and to lean into Christian community with God’s people…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ…THE WHOLE MEASURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. Can you imagine it? Can you dream it with me? If you can dream it, you can pray it. And if you can pray it with just the faith the size of a mustard seed…
Are you with me?