Be transformed by the renewing of your mind....
Last Thursday I sat with a woman coaching & teaching her concerning her personal contribution in the body of Christ. She is our newest Christian in the Bronx, and a group of people meet in her home. They are friends, family, and neighbors that she herself began reaching out to even previous to her own faith commitment, and she continues to tell everyone she meets about how God has changed her life. As we were talking, she suddenly began to cry. I was confused for a moment because we weren't discussing a theme at that time that I would think would evoke this response. After asking her what was on her mind, she explained that as we were talking she envisioned in her mind all the people out on the street working & going about their business just like any given day in the Bronx, but she said that she could see their emptiness just like she had been empty before Christ came into her life. With that thought, more tears. There was a deep & personal compassion for the people of her community.
I know what some of you might be thinking. It's only because she's a new believer, right? We were all once that way, weren't we? One day so long ago. I mean, eventually she'll become just as complacent as the rest of us, right?... I sure hope not.
I still remember a church elder nearly 70 years old in Houston tearing up and choking on the "lump" in his throat as he told me a story of redemption. The story he told occured some 40 years before, and this man had not given in to the MYTH of complacency as some sort of right of passage for spiritual maturity.
How did Jesus manage to maintain his campassion throughout an exhausting ministry that kept him up at night praying and ultimately led him to the cross where he would say: Father forgive them? I suppose it was because he was true to his nature. God is love. I also suppose that a stirring compassion for people who are empty and without hope would be true to our nature as the people of God. Mission is our truest self.
When this woman's tears become an experience to us that is distant and foreign -- a sentimental memory at best -- we are in desperate need of a redemptive memory. We are all in desperate need of a spiritual before & after picture: Before = object of wrath, After = raised to life and seated with Christ in the Heavenly realms (Eph 2). We need a redemptive memory, not one that resurrects guilt or shame that was already buried in a liquid grave, but a memory that stirs gratitude and a desire to share our priceless treasure. It is a memory that stimulates praise and thanksgiving that leads ultimately to becoming a witness of what God has done for us.
I know what some of you might be thinking. It's only because she's a new believer, right? We were all once that way, weren't we? One day so long ago. I mean, eventually she'll become just as complacent as the rest of us, right?... I sure hope not.
I still remember a church elder nearly 70 years old in Houston tearing up and choking on the "lump" in his throat as he told me a story of redemption. The story he told occured some 40 years before, and this man had not given in to the MYTH of complacency as some sort of right of passage for spiritual maturity.
How did Jesus manage to maintain his campassion throughout an exhausting ministry that kept him up at night praying and ultimately led him to the cross where he would say: Father forgive them? I suppose it was because he was true to his nature. God is love. I also suppose that a stirring compassion for people who are empty and without hope would be true to our nature as the people of God. Mission is our truest self.
When this woman's tears become an experience to us that is distant and foreign -- a sentimental memory at best -- we are in desperate need of a redemptive memory. We are all in desperate need of a spiritual before & after picture: Before = object of wrath, After = raised to life and seated with Christ in the Heavenly realms (Eph 2). We need a redemptive memory, not one that resurrects guilt or shame that was already buried in a liquid grave, but a memory that stirs gratitude and a desire to share our priceless treasure. It is a memory that stimulates praise and thanksgiving that leads ultimately to becoming a witness of what God has done for us.
posted by Jared | 5:36 PM
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