|
Wisdom Saying
Do you know what I mean? You join a community looking for~what?~closeness, support, some measure of safety~and nine times out of ten what you get instead is this holy struggle to live and work with people who are just as angular as you are. The brains want everyone to act like brains and the hearts want everyone to act like hearts and there is always a hangnail who brings out the hangnail in everyone else.
*Barbara Brown Taylor. Bread of Angels.
Scripture~I Corinthians 12.12 (WE)
A person has only one body, and the body has many parts. It is the same with Christ.
Comments
Likely, many of us long for and resists community. "Community" sounds good on paper, but live it can be quite another thing. Community is blessed by its differences, and the same cause of blessing can turn into a curse.
I know this up-close as a pastor. Long gone is the view I had of the church when I accepted a call to serve it as a member of the clergy~that the church was filled with persons who truly wanted the best for everyone and loved everyone else and acted like it. I have seen too much, much too much, of the opposite. Indeed, so much, that without being anchored to the organized church by vocation, I would likely have left it earlier in life~as many have done long before my age.
Well, regardless of the foibles of community, the church is a community. And what can you do about that? You can act like a Christian in it, and pray for patience with those who refuse to do likewise.
Now, that may sound like a tall order, but I find it not so when I have truly surrendered my will to God and am willing to see with the eyes of love the person who irks me. Of course, that transition occurs only after I have to confess my own pride that wants coldly to judge my brother or sister, rather than see into the confusion and pain that leads us to act in selfish and irrational ways.
Reflection
How can you model the spirit of Christ in the faith community you belong in?
Brian is available to respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Director, his speaking, doing classes, workshops, or retreats for churches or other spiritual groups. He will inform regarding how to receive his other writings or offer replies to comments or questions.
For submission of replies, see below:
*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, and their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, in Clearwater and Punta Gorda, Florida. He is a United Methodist pastor and vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in Georgia. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ through contemplative prayer and living.
|
