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9/2/13
5/6/13
Our Members.
Reader,
I think I've been guilty of being the skeptic.
These past two years I've watched my church almost triple in size. We went from having one service in a small church building, to having two in a room that can fit 400 people. Honestly, that's a great blessing! Sometimes, it's a blessing I'm not really sure how to deal with. More people means more sin, but it also means more joy, more salvation, but it could mean more division. More people to me used to mean more work.
We're called the body. In the book to the Corinthian church, Paul preached about how we are each different members of the body with different gifts, but all equal parts with Christ as the head. He talks about not diminishing each other or yourself in your gifting, thinking that one part of the body is greater than the other.
I bring this up because I think I have a tendency to forget, and I think you do as well, just what this means for all of us in the church.
When you become a member at a particular church, you're pledging responsibility as a member of the Body of Christ. Whether your gift leads you to be like the eyes or the hands or the mouth, you have a part in the church. But just like Paul warns the Corinthians, we forget who we are in the body, we take on too much responsibility, judge the body, and we can stop functioning altogether.
I've played the skeptic. I've sat back from the body and looked it over, with all it's new additions, and wondered if our body could handle the massive surgery it's undergoing. Will these new parts fit? Will the leaders change because of this? What if we get infected, will we just flat out die?
It wasn't until Christ changed my heart that I realized it is not my job to be skeptic of the great Surgeon. He showed me my life, that I wasn't serving my fellow members. That I was expecting much of everyone else around me and taking from a buffet of service, but I played no part in preparing the great feast.
So I began to pray over where my place was in service - what part of the body am I anyway? I asked my pastor for advice and he said if I wasn't satisfied with the general call to serve my brothers then I would never find joy in a specific calling either. So I texted my lot family leader and begged to have a part in serving our lot family. That's when it hit me.
Our leaders don't get requests like that often. We are expecting so much of them, but we have no part in building them up, being behind the scenes, or stepping up to serve alongside them. We think the "glorious" jobs are the ones that should be filled (worship leader, youth group leader, you name it). Yet, all those roles are filled, so there's nothing we can do in the church, because we don't have a title.
I've found something different. I love encouraging my pastor and my worship leader and our discipleship coach and bringing people into my home. Discipling and admonishing the believers is my calling. I have no clue what title that give me in the Body, but that's what I do. No one has to tell me to do it, but instead I see that need and it's my job to pursue it.
However, I do not think we are called to be the only one doing what we do. It's not good for man to do his duties alone. I can't disciple the whole church, I need people to admonish me at times. If I overburden myself I'm not doing anyone any favors. Jon Foreman explains by saying that we aren't called to take the whole mountain by storm, but instead we strive to conquer our own piece of that mountain.
So what about the rest of the church? That was my question this morning. If I'm not to take the whole mountain by storm, the rest of them should be serving too. Yet we all can get so complacent. The wonderful thing is this: the more we serve, the more we encourage, the more we do this the more they will want to follow our lead. We can't force them to be the part of the body their called to be, but we can encourage them and pray God brings life to these bones. Don't get me wrong, we should be calling out the members who aren't functioning. We should not be the skeptic though.
So this is my call of encouragement to you. You may not have a title in the church, but what areas are you most keen to noticing the church struggle in? That may very well be the area you have a heart for. What do you love to do? Find creative way to implicate that in your small groups, or in times where normal church functions aren't scheduled. Open up your home, your free time, your job, and all of you. The worst things we can do is think we aren't gifted, that our part isn't important, or worst, to think it's someone else's responsibility.
Don't down play other's gifts, but encourage them in it. Where would we be with out even the smallest parts of our members.
This will build unity. This will glorify the Lord. This makes us the light to a lost and dying world, if we serve with joy and fervency.
Chelsy.
I think I've been guilty of being the skeptic.
These past two years I've watched my church almost triple in size. We went from having one service in a small church building, to having two in a room that can fit 400 people. Honestly, that's a great blessing! Sometimes, it's a blessing I'm not really sure how to deal with. More people means more sin, but it also means more joy, more salvation, but it could mean more division. More people to me used to mean more work.
We're called the body. In the book to the Corinthian church, Paul preached about how we are each different members of the body with different gifts, but all equal parts with Christ as the head. He talks about not diminishing each other or yourself in your gifting, thinking that one part of the body is greater than the other.
I bring this up because I think I have a tendency to forget, and I think you do as well, just what this means for all of us in the church.
When you become a member at a particular church, you're pledging responsibility as a member of the Body of Christ. Whether your gift leads you to be like the eyes or the hands or the mouth, you have a part in the church. But just like Paul warns the Corinthians, we forget who we are in the body, we take on too much responsibility, judge the body, and we can stop functioning altogether.
I've played the skeptic. I've sat back from the body and looked it over, with all it's new additions, and wondered if our body could handle the massive surgery it's undergoing. Will these new parts fit? Will the leaders change because of this? What if we get infected, will we just flat out die?
It wasn't until Christ changed my heart that I realized it is not my job to be skeptic of the great Surgeon. He showed me my life, that I wasn't serving my fellow members. That I was expecting much of everyone else around me and taking from a buffet of service, but I played no part in preparing the great feast.
So I began to pray over where my place was in service - what part of the body am I anyway? I asked my pastor for advice and he said if I wasn't satisfied with the general call to serve my brothers then I would never find joy in a specific calling either. So I texted my lot family leader and begged to have a part in serving our lot family. That's when it hit me.
Our leaders don't get requests like that often. We are expecting so much of them, but we have no part in building them up, being behind the scenes, or stepping up to serve alongside them. We think the "glorious" jobs are the ones that should be filled (worship leader, youth group leader, you name it). Yet, all those roles are filled, so there's nothing we can do in the church, because we don't have a title.
I've found something different. I love encouraging my pastor and my worship leader and our discipleship coach and bringing people into my home. Discipling and admonishing the believers is my calling. I have no clue what title that give me in the Body, but that's what I do. No one has to tell me to do it, but instead I see that need and it's my job to pursue it.
However, I do not think we are called to be the only one doing what we do. It's not good for man to do his duties alone. I can't disciple the whole church, I need people to admonish me at times. If I overburden myself I'm not doing anyone any favors. Jon Foreman explains by saying that we aren't called to take the whole mountain by storm, but instead we strive to conquer our own piece of that mountain.
So what about the rest of the church? That was my question this morning. If I'm not to take the whole mountain by storm, the rest of them should be serving too. Yet we all can get so complacent. The wonderful thing is this: the more we serve, the more we encourage, the more we do this the more they will want to follow our lead. We can't force them to be the part of the body their called to be, but we can encourage them and pray God brings life to these bones. Don't get me wrong, we should be calling out the members who aren't functioning. We should not be the skeptic though.
So this is my call of encouragement to you. You may not have a title in the church, but what areas are you most keen to noticing the church struggle in? That may very well be the area you have a heart for. What do you love to do? Find creative way to implicate that in your small groups, or in times where normal church functions aren't scheduled. Open up your home, your free time, your job, and all of you. The worst things we can do is think we aren't gifted, that our part isn't important, or worst, to think it's someone else's responsibility.
Don't down play other's gifts, but encourage them in it. Where would we be with out even the smallest parts of our members.
This will build unity. This will glorify the Lord. This makes us the light to a lost and dying world, if we serve with joy and fervency.
Chelsy.
4/10/13
And There We Were...
In Quito, late at night, on a bus headed for Lasso. I remembered last year, how I sat on that same bus and felt tired and annoyed that no one else wanted to sleep. This year however, I was wide awake and ready to serve. I sat with Kinsey and we had such good conversation. She told me about her spiritual gifts, and I shared the same. We talked about engagement and marriage and mission and love. What an amazing conversation to prepare my heart for all that lied ahead.
Lasso was uneventful in the sense that we didn't stay long. It was more or less a pit stop on the way to Santa Ana. We were on the bus again by midday. While we were there we played volleyball, got to know one another and catch up with some of the team. Marc made us aware of what would be our focus in scripture that week, the character of God. He challenged us to each have a verse, memorize it, and this verse should explain a characteristic of God that we were wrestling with. He encouraged us to share a piece of God's character we had been struggling with.
Mine was: He is a Father to the fatherless.
Driving to Santa Ana, I fell asleep. When we arrived there were a few children and adults scattered around the center of the town and we began unloading and finding housing for us all. A little girl ran up to us, Niyali. She played with us and, just like all the other kids in the village, we were immediate friends. She was already really special in my heart.
The village of Santa Ana is in the middle of the jungle, there's running water and working bathrooms, and its right on the river front of a river connecting to the Amazon. It's not a very large town and it's made up of a very close community, which should be referred to more as a tribe. One of the leaders explained the history of the village to me this way: The government had a similar arrangement with the indigenous tribes there as they did with Native Americans here. They forced them to settle, whereas before they were mainly nomadic, to reduce the fighting between tribes, however these groups actually picked the land they were to settle on and were given rights and regulations on how to use the land. The tribe basically decided on what could/couldn't be built on their land, who could live there, etc. They have a president and the community is mostly made up of families who are all very close to one another.
We were here to build a church.
The community is not made up of a large Christian group, but it seemed a lot of people had a knowledge for Christ and a belief and thankfulness toward Him. Just like most of Ecuador, they most likely were taught basic principles about Him, but in some community belief is misconstrued with other tribal religions and Roman Catholic traditions, warping the foundation of the church. It was important that these people see, also, that the church is not just a building. That's part of the reason we were there to help.
Latin American culture can depend on physical structures as an object of worship. It's easy to see, if you go to a large city and giant church buildings are not hard to come by. These buildings will most often have an entry fee, they have a place to buy alms for repentance, confession areas, statues of saints and Mary and Christ to leave gifts and alms of forgiveness and thanks. The people begin to see grace as an obscure thing. They begin to see the church as a building, not a community. They have deep doctrinal flaws and their leaders are often unfaithful and commit adultery or fall into alcoholism for example but do not step down from leadership. It causes the gospel to be warped.
So here we were, 30 some people about to build the foundation of a church, not just physically, but in their hearts too. What a better way for these people to see that the building we set out to help with was not the church, they were. We were. Bart, the leader of the project, had been seeing to it these people were already meeting corporately before a building was constructed to further relay the message. Steve, our missionary we support, had been praying with Bart over who would pastor this church plant and the Lord called to mind a member of the church in La Fuente, Dadeo. Dadeo had successfully integrated himself as a respectable member of the community before we had even arrived,
In truth they didn't necessarily need us, but God used this group to show the new church in Santa Ana so much.
I want to take time to also give a back story on Bart and this partnership we've begun to form. I will speak more on the church as I go on, as it wasn't show to me the first day either.
I got the chance to talk with Bart in the village, but he also shared with the whole group a bit of their story before we left Lasso as well. Bart and Tracy found the village a few years ago. They were part of a clean water project where a group came to Santa Ana to install water systems around the area. They successfully created a better environment to prevent the spreading of disease. But somewhere in their time between going to and from Ecuador and the United States they began to develop a calling for this city. They were praying over what that meant when they discovered an Acts 29 church in Ecuador. La Fuente. They met with Steve and Sandi Youngren to discuss what they felt called to in this small village.
The vision was for a church to be planted here. Bart and Tracy had realized in their travels that there were in fact some Christians who felt isolated and untaught in their community and in need of a body. Steve and Sandi do tremendous work at building a body in Ecuador. They have successfully planted and tended to a church in the large city of Quito, they have built a training center in Lasso, reached out to needing tribes like Tena and now they were feeling the call to help Bart with his vision.
That's where Dadeo came into the picture. Neither Steve, nor Bart felt the call to pastor this church, so they were in desperate need of someone who could. Dadeo had been ready and waiting for quite some time. He had come to the church a few years back, was a disciple of Steve and had been waiting to pastor a church. He visited the village, prayed over the decision and it was all set in motion.
Marc, my pastor, had shared with our group a few times how amazing it was that all 30 some people could stand in a room together in Ecuador. He said, "This proves how sovereign our God is, because we can't imagine all that had to happen for all of us to be here right now." Looking at my own story and call to Ecuador, know some of the groups story, and then hearing the strange circumstances that connected this missing pieces together, I have to agree.
It's almost like God was writing an intricate story. It makes me wonder what the bigger picture looks like. After all, this is such a minuet part of the grander scheme of things.
More to come,
Chelsy.
Lasso was uneventful in the sense that we didn't stay long. It was more or less a pit stop on the way to Santa Ana. We were on the bus again by midday. While we were there we played volleyball, got to know one another and catch up with some of the team. Marc made us aware of what would be our focus in scripture that week, the character of God. He challenged us to each have a verse, memorize it, and this verse should explain a characteristic of God that we were wrestling with. He encouraged us to share a piece of God's character we had been struggling with.
Mine was: He is a Father to the fatherless.
Driving to Santa Ana, I fell asleep. When we arrived there were a few children and adults scattered around the center of the town and we began unloading and finding housing for us all. A little girl ran up to us, Niyali. She played with us and, just like all the other kids in the village, we were immediate friends. She was already really special in my heart.
The village of Santa Ana is in the middle of the jungle, there's running water and working bathrooms, and its right on the river front of a river connecting to the Amazon. It's not a very large town and it's made up of a very close community, which should be referred to more as a tribe. One of the leaders explained the history of the village to me this way: The government had a similar arrangement with the indigenous tribes there as they did with Native Americans here. They forced them to settle, whereas before they were mainly nomadic, to reduce the fighting between tribes, however these groups actually picked the land they were to settle on and were given rights and regulations on how to use the land. The tribe basically decided on what could/couldn't be built on their land, who could live there, etc. They have a president and the community is mostly made up of families who are all very close to one another.
We were here to build a church.
The community is not made up of a large Christian group, but it seemed a lot of people had a knowledge for Christ and a belief and thankfulness toward Him. Just like most of Ecuador, they most likely were taught basic principles about Him, but in some community belief is misconstrued with other tribal religions and Roman Catholic traditions, warping the foundation of the church. It was important that these people see, also, that the church is not just a building. That's part of the reason we were there to help.
Latin American culture can depend on physical structures as an object of worship. It's easy to see, if you go to a large city and giant church buildings are not hard to come by. These buildings will most often have an entry fee, they have a place to buy alms for repentance, confession areas, statues of saints and Mary and Christ to leave gifts and alms of forgiveness and thanks. The people begin to see grace as an obscure thing. They begin to see the church as a building, not a community. They have deep doctrinal flaws and their leaders are often unfaithful and commit adultery or fall into alcoholism for example but do not step down from leadership. It causes the gospel to be warped.
So here we were, 30 some people about to build the foundation of a church, not just physically, but in their hearts too. What a better way for these people to see that the building we set out to help with was not the church, they were. We were. Bart, the leader of the project, had been seeing to it these people were already meeting corporately before a building was constructed to further relay the message. Steve, our missionary we support, had been praying with Bart over who would pastor this church plant and the Lord called to mind a member of the church in La Fuente, Dadeo. Dadeo had successfully integrated himself as a respectable member of the community before we had even arrived,
In truth they didn't necessarily need us, but God used this group to show the new church in Santa Ana so much.
I want to take time to also give a back story on Bart and this partnership we've begun to form. I will speak more on the church as I go on, as it wasn't show to me the first day either.
I got the chance to talk with Bart in the village, but he also shared with the whole group a bit of their story before we left Lasso as well. Bart and Tracy found the village a few years ago. They were part of a clean water project where a group came to Santa Ana to install water systems around the area. They successfully created a better environment to prevent the spreading of disease. But somewhere in their time between going to and from Ecuador and the United States they began to develop a calling for this city. They were praying over what that meant when they discovered an Acts 29 church in Ecuador. La Fuente. They met with Steve and Sandi Youngren to discuss what they felt called to in this small village.
The vision was for a church to be planted here. Bart and Tracy had realized in their travels that there were in fact some Christians who felt isolated and untaught in their community and in need of a body. Steve and Sandi do tremendous work at building a body in Ecuador. They have successfully planted and tended to a church in the large city of Quito, they have built a training center in Lasso, reached out to needing tribes like Tena and now they were feeling the call to help Bart with his vision.
That's where Dadeo came into the picture. Neither Steve, nor Bart felt the call to pastor this church, so they were in desperate need of someone who could. Dadeo had been ready and waiting for quite some time. He had come to the church a few years back, was a disciple of Steve and had been waiting to pastor a church. He visited the village, prayed over the decision and it was all set in motion.
Marc, my pastor, had shared with our group a few times how amazing it was that all 30 some people could stand in a room together in Ecuador. He said, "This proves how sovereign our God is, because we can't imagine all that had to happen for all of us to be here right now." Looking at my own story and call to Ecuador, know some of the groups story, and then hearing the strange circumstances that connected this missing pieces together, I have to agree.
It's almost like God was writing an intricate story. It makes me wonder what the bigger picture looks like. After all, this is such a minuet part of the grander scheme of things.
More to come,
Chelsy.
4/8/13
Planes, Buses, and Sidewalks.
I've been back in the states for about 2 hours now. For those of you who weren't aware I've spent the last 8 days out of the country, in Ecuador. I didn't journal. I haven't yet shared the story with anyone. I figured I would share the rawest of it before I had the chance to do otherwise. Know that each post will recap a few days at most.
I woke up at 5 am April 1st. Double checked my list of things needed, enjoyed the last nice shower I would have for a week, and drove to the church building to meet the other 29 who would join me. Some of us were tired, but all of us excited.
We prayed together and took off to the airport. At this point I could already get a general idea of how this group would interact on the trip. A few of the girls had a lot of encouraging energy, some were quiet and later proved to have willing hands to serve. To be incredibly vulnerable, I've always had a difficult time in groups of people, mostly when I'm faced with the last group of people that were on the trip. There are some of us who are just social adept.
Girls with pretty everything and funny stories that seem to be always happy and you tend to really compare yourself to them. You may even convince yourself they think they're better than you (or everyone). I had spent a lot of time with one of these girls on the trip last year and found just how wrong I was about her. She ended up being the sweetest most caring girl and we actually built a solid friendship. It's not that I think less of them, but there's so much jealousy that crowds my heart sometimes around them that I, and many of us, begin to be bitter. We begin to compare ourselves and think maybe the way we are isn't good enough, after all everyone loves them so much.
This was the first trial I was faced with on the trip.
When in the St. Louis airport, while we were all checking our luggage, Kim realized her passport was expired. We lost one member of our team of 29 people, and a woman with such great heart! I can't imagine what the trip would have looked like with her, but it was amazing to see God's sovereignty in the situation. I knew it was so hard for her not to come with us and see her brother and sister and "waste" all she had been preparing for. It was amazing to see later that she may be able to come back in the summer on her own, which truly may be even more of a blessing to her in the long run.
1 hour and 30 minutes after taking off in St. Louis, we landed in Atlanta, Georgia with a 4 hour layover in store. This ended up being a good time to brush up on Spanish, get to know one another, and be goofballs together. We all had a meal together and afterwards played spoons and swapped some stories.
Still the other trial looked me straight in the eye right before takeoff. Confidence has always been an issue for me, like every other girl in the world. In the course of 5 minutes, all of my confidence was crushed by the people I loved most. My humor and my Spanish skills were both challenged and I began to feel, "Why am I even on this trip?". I could feel the tug of the enemy that is so familiar to my heart. I began to feel self pity, anger, and loneliness exceedingly. I had almost decided not to bring up what I was feeling to the friends who had hurt me, after all they didn't mean to hurt my feelings, and maybe I was just being overdramatic. I just need to get over it.
Thus surfaced my second trial.
Out of grace, the Lord shook me and showed me that the longer I held in how I felt, the more I would ruin the relationships around me. It's never better to just "get over it". I confronted my friend and she quickly apologized and everything was just fine. But the lesson I learned was so deep. I'd later be tested on the same principle multiple times throughout the trip. In vulnerability, I'm still learning to actively confront the people I love and not hide my emotion from them
Six hours came and went on the plan to Quito. We had the joy of watching a movie on the international flight. I began to see that the relationship I was building with Erin was becoming promising. I could see that she was beginning to confide in me and lean on me in small ways which was such a blessing. Erin is Maria's sister; for those of you who don't know, Maria and Matt Hawn have traveled from our church to stay with the missionaries in Quito, Steve and Sandi. It was crazy to see what would come of this relationship later on the trip.
So was the first day. We arrived in Quito around... late, took a bus to Lasso and stayed the night. We woke up early ready to head to the jungle, where we would be helping build a church plant in Santa Ana.
This I will share with you in the next post, as there is so much to tell.
Thanks so much to all of you who prayed and gave support, whether financially or emotionally. You all have no clue how much this means to me, without you I would not have had an amazing experience that I will remember for ever, that changed my heart, and that I now get to share with so many.
Thank you,
Chelsy.
I woke up at 5 am April 1st. Double checked my list of things needed, enjoyed the last nice shower I would have for a week, and drove to the church building to meet the other 29 who would join me. Some of us were tired, but all of us excited.
We prayed together and took off to the airport. At this point I could already get a general idea of how this group would interact on the trip. A few of the girls had a lot of encouraging energy, some were quiet and later proved to have willing hands to serve. To be incredibly vulnerable, I've always had a difficult time in groups of people, mostly when I'm faced with the last group of people that were on the trip. There are some of us who are just social adept.
Girls with pretty everything and funny stories that seem to be always happy and you tend to really compare yourself to them. You may even convince yourself they think they're better than you (or everyone). I had spent a lot of time with one of these girls on the trip last year and found just how wrong I was about her. She ended up being the sweetest most caring girl and we actually built a solid friendship. It's not that I think less of them, but there's so much jealousy that crowds my heart sometimes around them that I, and many of us, begin to be bitter. We begin to compare ourselves and think maybe the way we are isn't good enough, after all everyone loves them so much.
This was the first trial I was faced with on the trip.
When in the St. Louis airport, while we were all checking our luggage, Kim realized her passport was expired. We lost one member of our team of 29 people, and a woman with such great heart! I can't imagine what the trip would have looked like with her, but it was amazing to see God's sovereignty in the situation. I knew it was so hard for her not to come with us and see her brother and sister and "waste" all she had been preparing for. It was amazing to see later that she may be able to come back in the summer on her own, which truly may be even more of a blessing to her in the long run.
1 hour and 30 minutes after taking off in St. Louis, we landed in Atlanta, Georgia with a 4 hour layover in store. This ended up being a good time to brush up on Spanish, get to know one another, and be goofballs together. We all had a meal together and afterwards played spoons and swapped some stories.
Still the other trial looked me straight in the eye right before takeoff. Confidence has always been an issue for me, like every other girl in the world. In the course of 5 minutes, all of my confidence was crushed by the people I loved most. My humor and my Spanish skills were both challenged and I began to feel, "Why am I even on this trip?". I could feel the tug of the enemy that is so familiar to my heart. I began to feel self pity, anger, and loneliness exceedingly. I had almost decided not to bring up what I was feeling to the friends who had hurt me, after all they didn't mean to hurt my feelings, and maybe I was just being overdramatic. I just need to get over it.
Thus surfaced my second trial.
Out of grace, the Lord shook me and showed me that the longer I held in how I felt, the more I would ruin the relationships around me. It's never better to just "get over it". I confronted my friend and she quickly apologized and everything was just fine. But the lesson I learned was so deep. I'd later be tested on the same principle multiple times throughout the trip. In vulnerability, I'm still learning to actively confront the people I love and not hide my emotion from them
Six hours came and went on the plan to Quito. We had the joy of watching a movie on the international flight. I began to see that the relationship I was building with Erin was becoming promising. I could see that she was beginning to confide in me and lean on me in small ways which was such a blessing. Erin is Maria's sister; for those of you who don't know, Maria and Matt Hawn have traveled from our church to stay with the missionaries in Quito, Steve and Sandi. It was crazy to see what would come of this relationship later on the trip.
So was the first day. We arrived in Quito around... late, took a bus to Lasso and stayed the night. We woke up early ready to head to the jungle, where we would be helping build a church plant in Santa Ana.
This I will share with you in the next post, as there is so much to tell.
Thanks so much to all of you who prayed and gave support, whether financially or emotionally. You all have no clue how much this means to me, without you I would not have had an amazing experience that I will remember for ever, that changed my heart, and that I now get to share with so many.
Thank you,
Chelsy.
2/20/13
Slaves in Hiding.
There's a door down the street with a small opening at the top. The person behind the door can slip it open and closed as they please. They control who comes in and out and they prefer neither occurs.
Every now and then you'd see a curious soul knock on the metal door and the latch would sometimes open and sometimes stay shut. They would always ask, "How are you this lovely day?" The voice would always answer politely, "Oh, just fine." The lad outside would wander away smiling and content with the encounter and even overjoyed if the face peered from the latch.
The face and the voice behind the door was convincing enough. No matter how gloomy and cold the door looked, you heard the cheery voice and saw the glowing smile on that face and you were convinced the voice behind that door was one of a gladdened soul.
But one man, a very particular scientist sat across the street on the park bench each lunch hour and watched the curious and polite people in their charade. He was not so convinced. One sunny day he strolled across the street and gave a good knock on the cold, hard metal door. The latch did not open and after some scuffling noises you heard the polite voice call out "Yes, I'm doing fine this wonderful morning, thank you for asking." The scientist responded, "Sir, may I come inside?"
There was the most curious quiet on the opposite side of the thick metal. The voice became shriller and more chilled, "No thank you kind sir, we're all fine in here, have a merry day." Then the voice scuffled away.
The scientist gave a good two bangs on the metal and called out quite loudly, "Well sir I'm not thoroughly convinced. I'd very much like to join you in tea and hear about you. You've persuaded to the rest of them, but your manner is a bit mysterious to me." The latch opened, behind it was not the usual glowing man, but a ragged skinny face. The scientist realized that from his perch on the opposite end of the street the face had seemed fuller and happier. Only a fool could be convinced otherwise from this near to the latch.
The voice whispered, "Why would you want to know anything other than how I am this day?" The scientist gave a warm smile and leaned closer, "Just humor me." The latch slid close slowly. After a few long moments the latches began to open on the other side. You could hear several different sorts of bolts unhinging as if the man had been preparing for nuclear war.
The door barely opened and a small withered hand summoned him inside. The man slowly came inside, wary that not many, if any had entered these lonely chambers. The man slammed the door shut behind him and hid in the corner covering his face and shrinking under a shabby blanket he was substituting for a coat. The scientist analyzed the room before him.
Dark quarters, hardly any light shed on the piles of dirt and junk that lay around his feet. A small mattress lie in the opposite corner of the 6x10 chamber. The man still in the corner was audibly weeping. As the scientist turned the whimpering soul cowered further into the wall. How could this man have hidden himself from so many passerby's?
________________________________________________________________________________
If metaphors don't come easily to you I'll break the parable down by stating this: I've been the man behind the door waiting for a scientist to invite himself in. It's too easy to hid behind thick walls in our culture where the word "Fine" can drive most people away.
Today I've realized a little more that hiding behind the door is not freedom. Galatians 5:1 "For freedom Christ has set us free.." Today I'm praying He'll show me how to open the door to the people who really want in. Allowing them to see things aren't always as they seem and allowing them to help. I'm having to learn that I'm not meant to be all put together and perfect. I will have flaws and I will make mistakes.
The longer I close the door to the people around me the longer I live in my own mess, unable to clean it up and I will grow withered and weak.
If the door is closed to His people, the door is closed to Him as well.
Chelsy.
Every now and then you'd see a curious soul knock on the metal door and the latch would sometimes open and sometimes stay shut. They would always ask, "How are you this lovely day?" The voice would always answer politely, "Oh, just fine." The lad outside would wander away smiling and content with the encounter and even overjoyed if the face peered from the latch.
The face and the voice behind the door was convincing enough. No matter how gloomy and cold the door looked, you heard the cheery voice and saw the glowing smile on that face and you were convinced the voice behind that door was one of a gladdened soul.
But one man, a very particular scientist sat across the street on the park bench each lunch hour and watched the curious and polite people in their charade. He was not so convinced. One sunny day he strolled across the street and gave a good knock on the cold, hard metal door. The latch did not open and after some scuffling noises you heard the polite voice call out "Yes, I'm doing fine this wonderful morning, thank you for asking." The scientist responded, "Sir, may I come inside?"
There was the most curious quiet on the opposite side of the thick metal. The voice became shriller and more chilled, "No thank you kind sir, we're all fine in here, have a merry day." Then the voice scuffled away.
The scientist gave a good two bangs on the metal and called out quite loudly, "Well sir I'm not thoroughly convinced. I'd very much like to join you in tea and hear about you. You've persuaded to the rest of them, but your manner is a bit mysterious to me." The latch opened, behind it was not the usual glowing man, but a ragged skinny face. The scientist realized that from his perch on the opposite end of the street the face had seemed fuller and happier. Only a fool could be convinced otherwise from this near to the latch.
The voice whispered, "Why would you want to know anything other than how I am this day?" The scientist gave a warm smile and leaned closer, "Just humor me." The latch slid close slowly. After a few long moments the latches began to open on the other side. You could hear several different sorts of bolts unhinging as if the man had been preparing for nuclear war.
The door barely opened and a small withered hand summoned him inside. The man slowly came inside, wary that not many, if any had entered these lonely chambers. The man slammed the door shut behind him and hid in the corner covering his face and shrinking under a shabby blanket he was substituting for a coat. The scientist analyzed the room before him.
Dark quarters, hardly any light shed on the piles of dirt and junk that lay around his feet. A small mattress lie in the opposite corner of the 6x10 chamber. The man still in the corner was audibly weeping. As the scientist turned the whimpering soul cowered further into the wall. How could this man have hidden himself from so many passerby's?
________________________________________________________________________________
If metaphors don't come easily to you I'll break the parable down by stating this: I've been the man behind the door waiting for a scientist to invite himself in. It's too easy to hid behind thick walls in our culture where the word "Fine" can drive most people away.
Today I've realized a little more that hiding behind the door is not freedom. Galatians 5:1 "For freedom Christ has set us free.." Today I'm praying He'll show me how to open the door to the people who really want in. Allowing them to see things aren't always as they seem and allowing them to help. I'm having to learn that I'm not meant to be all put together and perfect. I will have flaws and I will make mistakes.
The longer I close the door to the people around me the longer I live in my own mess, unable to clean it up and I will grow withered and weak.
If the door is closed to His people, the door is closed to Him as well.
Chelsy.
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