"Bloody"

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

It’s important to stress this right off the top: nobody complained, this is not in response to criticism and I have no axe to grind. It’s something I want to talk about for my own reasons – and hopefully because this bit of transparency might show something about this Kingdom. I said “bloody” at least 5 times that my wife noticed this past Sunday. Not the worst verbal transgression, I’m sure, but also not something I’m crazy about, either. Far from doing it on purpose, this is just something that’s worked it’s way into my daily vernacular and I think it can serve as a microcosm for a discussion about change and journey.

So let me ask you something. Do you ever get tired of waiting for a new you to emerge? Sometimes I feel like I’m trapped in one of those whack-a-mole games you see on the midway at some county fair. You’re supposed to use a big sponge hammer to “whack” each mole back into it’s hole for a prize. The problem is, every time you knock one down, another takes it’s place. You could call it the “rat race of human change”. Focus on one thing and another pops up where you’re not looking. You end up trading one problem for another. Do you ever get tired of waiting for a new you to emerge?

I have a list of principles I cling to when it comes to the human journey and the desire for change. While in the context of my own introspection this week, I thought I’d share them with you.

First: it’s hard to separate who you are some of the time from who you are the rest of the time. The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. The words you think are the words you’ll find yourself saying when you’re guard is down or your energy is low or life simply does it’s thing. We all fancy ourselves capable of being able to operate in multiple modes. But in the spirit of James 5:12 (“Let your yes be yes and your no be no”), I think it’s desirable try to be one person all the time. Who you really are will poke it’s mole-ish head up whenever you’re not looking.

Second: that being said, we’re all on a journey and that journey will take one entire lifetime to complete. You can either be discourage by that and say “It’ll never end” or you can come to terms with it, turn it into an adventure and get on with the point of change that’s right in front of you. You can bet that God has an escalating agenda of change for you. It won’t stay the same. The
stakes will rise – and so will the challenge. What may be buried near the bottom of that agenda will eventually find it’s way to the top. It’s His gift to us. Len Sweet has called it “the gift of the struggle”. Have you found any gifts in your struggle? Can you trust God that they’re there?

Third: grace is the inexhaustible resource by which we will always have one more opportunity than we’ve used up. Well, almost. Let me qualify that: one more opportunity than we’ve used up as long as we haven’t moved into a pattern of open and wanton abuse. My understanding of grace is that there’s room for imperfection – there’s just not any room to treat it lightly. As long as we care to change and as long as we care to try, you’ll find one more opportunity than you’ve used up.

Let me end with a simple, direct quote from Galatians 6:9. “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Do you ever get tired of waiting for a new you to emerge? Don’t worry. It’s on the way.

This past Sunday was as important a message as we’ll ever get into regarding the vision of our church. It doesn’t matter if you ever come on a Sunday or not, you can still join us for the journey. Take a listen and see if it’s something you’re interested in.

Chris

LAST SUNDAY
As important a message as we’ll ever focus on when it comes to the vision of our church. What are your possibilities as a person and our possibilities a church? In fact, while we’re at it – what is a church anyway? If you missed it, you can tune into the podcast.

THIS SUNDAY
So far in this series, we’ve asked: what is a Christian, what is the cross and what is the church… This Sunday we’ll look at what you can do about it.

NEXT SERIES
Our next series starts in May and is entitled “Beautiful”. We’re looking for stories of things which you think capture true beauty. Hit reply and let us know.