Skip to main content

We are Better Together

                I do not like funerals.  However, as I stood out at the city cemetery this past week, I was reminded that I love what happens around funerals.  In short, people slow down and show up. 
Days ahead of time, several folks were cleaning the church building and making sure that the facility was ready.  Then the food started showing up.  Even with the large crowd that came, we had more food than we needed.  People travelled hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres to be here.  They hugged one another and, when they spoke, their conversations often centred on topics that were deeper and more important than the weather, or whatever else we often discuss.  There was a lot of laughter, a lot of tears and a lot care for one another.
                Unfortunately, those pictures and words are not the ones that normally describe us.  Ask someone how they are doing on an average day and they will likely say, “busy”.   Everyone is busy!  Too busy to visit, to slow down, to have anyone over or to doing anything other than get through their day.  The next word you will often hear is “tired”.  We would love to make time for people, but our busy lives have made us so tired that it never happens.  This all feeds another word that describes most of us: “Independent”.  While I admire those who look after themselves, we can carry our independence so far that we become isolated from one another.  None of this beneficial and we end up feeling alone.
                On the other hand, when God describes his people, he chooses the word “together”.  For example, the letter to the church in Ephesus tells us that we are “made alive together… raised together… and seated together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5-6).  We are also “joined together” (Ephesians 2:21), “built together” (2:22), “heirs together… members together… and sharers together” (3:6) and we are “joined and held together” (4:16).   In each of those cases, the people are better off because they are together with God and with one another.
                You are made for community.  You are made to be cared for and to care for others. 
                God knows and loves individuals, but he most often blesses us in and through one another.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Consider This: Who Needs Worship?

  Why does God need our worship? The events of Matthew 14 provide at least one answer.   This chapter starts with the beheading of John the Baptist (verses 1-12). This is the first in a series of events that indicate things are about to become much more difficult for the believers. Next, the scene shifts to a crowd gathered on a hillside in Galilee. After listening to Jesus teach all day, the apostles realized that these people had nothing to eat. They brought the problem to Jesus. He took a child’s lunch and fed the entire group of five thousand men plus women and children. Afterwards, they picked up twelve baskets of leftovers (verses 13-21).   Then Jesus told them to get in a boat and cross the Sea of Galilee. As they went, a storm arose, and the apostles were scared. They struggled along until Jesus came to them walking on the water. Peter tried walking on the water too and sank. After Jesus rescued Peter, they got into the boat, and the storm immediately s...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Spiritual Makeover (1 Peter 1:13-16)

 Three responses to the new life God has given us.  https://youtu.be/FmqX5-3jOKc  
Post a Comment
Read more

Consider This: Something to Hold On To

      If you have never stopped to see the Swinging Bridge in Souris, Manitoba, you should add it to your list of things to do. I like it. Others do not. It feels wobbly. It bounces up and down. I have seen people in the middle of the bridge holding on and screaming because it feels too unstable. Of course, there is nothing to fear. The bridge has huge anchors at each end and is secured by steel cables, but sometimes, our feelings make us forget the facts. Peter knows that his readers are about to face some scary situations. He does not want their feelings to obscure everything else, so he outlines three truths they need to remember. First, their hope is greater than their troubles. “For a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold… may be proved genuine and result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7). Not...
Post a Comment
Read more