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Making it Through the Middle

                 Antonio de la Rosa made the news this week as he reportedly spent 76 days paddling a combination paddleboard canoe 2500 miles from California to Hawaii. 
                Now, I completely understand the first ten miles.  Starting a new adventure is exciting.  I also understand the last three miles.  Completing a goal is fun!  The part I do not get is mile 1323 when he was out in the middle of the Pacific where one wave looked just like the next and progress was hard to measure.  The middle is where most people quit.
                I have seen that in church too.  Starting is fun.  Everyone cheers at baptisms.   Endings are honoured as we gather to say goodbye to Christian brothers and sisters.  It is the middle that sinks us.  In Ephesians 4:1, Paul urged the Ephesian church to live a life worthy of the calling they had received and then gave them two areas to focus on to help them make it through the middle.
                First, they needed to see themselves correctly.  “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:2-3).  Too often, we are our own worst enemy.  Thinking that our way is the only way, we start demanding that others do what we want them to do.  Scripture says that will not work.  As someone pointed out, “Immature Christians are hard to please and easy to offend!”   Acting that way is a sure path to trouble.
                Secondly, they needed to value the body of Christ.  “To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it… So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 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” (Ephesians 4:7-13). 
                We are stronger together.  We benefit from each other’s giftedness.  We mature as the body of Christ by living in the body of Christ.  It is naïve to think that you can make your spiritual journey alone.  When we understand the battle that we are in (Ephesians 6:10-20), then we will value the strength that is found in the church.
                Beginnings are good, but how we live the middle will determine the ending.

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