Respect the journey…

I have been having a great time at the Church that meets at Ian’s house on Tuesday nights. Last night we shook things up a bit and shared a meal. I think that may have been my favorite part of the evening, fun conversation around a meal that was prepared with love. Outstanding! Then we sang together in worship and our leader, Ian, opened up the first letter of John and we shared.

We have some give and take, you know the kind that followers of Jesus have as they attempt to use words to explain the unexplainable. We even got busy slicing and dicing some pretty deep concepts. I really feel like I am getting to know and care about these people, and that part is fun!

As I was thinking about our interaction this morning I felt like the Lord gave me an insight into what appeared to be some contentious moments in our discussion. The first paragraph of the letter talks about having “fellowship” so that our “joy” can be complete. As we wrestled with words choosing to have fellowship and having joy about it seemed elusive. I wondered about this. I have relationships of many years with the two men in the group. We have stood side by side through some tough years and tough situations. We have deep caring for one another and for that reason cut each other a lot of slack.

I realized that each of the members of our church are at different places in their journey with Christ. We are each having the thrill of victory that comes from new revelation and the agony of defeat that comes when our flesh jumps up and bites us in the rear end! There is no way that we can really join hands and sing Kum-ba-ya about our understanding (revelation) of Jesus. If we were a committee I doubt that we would agree about anything. When I think about it, I just want to laugh my head off! But Jesus whispered to me this morning that we are absolutely perfect as a mighty missionary team! Hilarious! He has put us together and is forming us into his image, each of us at our own individual place in our journey with him, and as a team for some exploits and adventures he has in store for us.

In the meantime, we read the tea leaves to determine if we are “alive” or “dead” in Christ! I think our meetings are playing as a reality shown on the heavenly cable TV channel. The drama and the comedy must be great fun. But I see Jesus among us. Encouraging us. Loving us. Shepherding us. And encouraging us to ‘respect the journey’ of each one of us.