On top of that you may have noticed (if any of you still read this) that it's been almost two months since my last post.
I'm not going to lie to you... the things that have been the hardest to deal with all come from what's happening at church.
Before you get mad hold on, because that's exactly what I have had to do. It is really, really easy for me to get mad and just throw up my hands and write people off.
It's easy to just dismiss negative and hurtful comments without looking at why they have been said. It's easy to hold up the positive comments and declare "we're doing a great job!"
What's not so easy is realizing that it's not supposed to be easy.
Like Karl talked about forgiveness last week, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes Christian life is hard. And I think it's what God has been trying to say to me through all of this.
Michael Lukaszewski, pastor of Oak Leaf Church in Georgia said this on twitter tonight...
"Christians need to stop acting like God just wants their lives to be easier."
That's hard to hear because in my heart I know it's true. A life that follows Jesus isn't going to be easy. I have to spend every waking moment fighting against my flesh and strive to listen to the Spirit. I have to hear the hard things from my Christian brothers and sisters, even if I don't like it or think it's true. I have to accept that I might not be right in every situation. I have to understand that while my feelings are real they might not be based on truth.
And so do you.
We all do.
Every day.
But don't take my word for it. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
The old life dies. Death is not a comfortable thing. We deal with pain when people in our lives die. It's stupid of us to think there won't be some pain when our old life dies.
There is this also... Proverbs 27:17 "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another."
For one piece of iron to sharpen another they have to be rubbed across each other. Each scraping off pieces of the other as they develop an edge. That is not comfortable.
I cannot help someone walk closer to Jesus without getting my edges scraped too. It's stupid to think I can make you more like Jesus without being uncomfortable.
All this is to say that it's not going to be easy, and we are fooling ourselves if we think that it will be or that it's only someone else's problem and I'm good the way I am.
I need you push me, and you need me to push you.
At times it will hurt, and we will need to forgive each other.
We may not even like each other from time to time.
But we cannot give up on each other because it's hard.
I'm choosing not to give up on you, please don't give up on me.
