Sometimes I just want to step away from ministry. I get tired. And then the song “Lean On Me” cycles up on the iPod. That is not funny Lord. The lyrics sung by Bill Withers talks about being there for others. Life happens, John Lennon famously said, when you are making other plans. Life has been happening to us and many close to us in recent months.
Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there’s
Always tomorrow
Lean on me, when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend
I have been thinking a lot about community. I have, to be honest, had many moments recently when I wondered if living in community with messy people is worth it.
I am drawn to the dysfunctional. My heart goes out to the wounded lambs. But I will confess that I struggle with the cost of walking in honest relationship with people. It is hard. I have come to understand why legalism is so much easier than grace. Legalism allows me to assess the situation and then apply a verse or assign a task. If that person rejects that Biblical admonition or task then legalism allows me to withdraw because they are disobedient. Grace does not give me that option. Grace demands that I move toward the struggle of my brother or sister and not away in judgment. No wonder grace is a tough sell.
That is the glorious dichotomy of grace. Grace wears me out and lifts me up. Grace frustrates and exhilarates. My old nature screams that people who make bad decisions over and over get what they “deserve”. They don’t “deserve” to be pursued and loved and restored. They made their bed now let them lay in it. But there is a small quiet voice in my heart that tells me that they have value. That they are loved by their Creator. And that voice asks who am I to decide who “deserves” anything?
A quote by Pastor Paul Donnan says it far better than I ever could.
Grace doesn’t treat us better than we deserve. It treats us without the slightest reference to what we deserve. Grace ceases to be grace if God withdraws it upon any human failure. If Grace is in any way tied to something you do, then it is no longer a gift but a wage, and that’s not grace.
And, to be selfish, the lyrics of Bill Withers tells me why it is in my own best interest to give grace willingly.
I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long
Till I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on
Yep. It is just a matter of time until I will be begging for grace for some stupid action or word. Paul knew that was true and reminded the Galatian Church.
Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. (Galatians 6, The Message)
Why are we so willing to receive grace and not extend it? Maybe the next lyric has a clue.
Please swallow your pride
If I have things
You need to borrow
For no one can fill
Pride. Pride causes us to cover our needs because that would show weakness. Pride tells us to wear a mask of false joy so that others won’t know our shame and sin. Our Father in Heaven designed this journey to be lived in community. God knows that we need Him and we need one another. Healthy community is not unlike two parents being the healthiest community for children. Sometimes a child needs his or her father and sometimes only the mother can touch their need. In the same way there are times when only Abba Father can comfort my soul but at other times I need the community of fellow believers to get through.
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem
That you’ll understand
We all need somebody to lean on
Yes it is hard to walk with the wounded. Yes it is frustrating to watch messy people make the same mistakes over and over. Yes it is tiring to give grace to the needy. But my heart’s desire remains the same. These words to the Church at Corinth wrap it up nicely.
So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4, The Message)
Joel Lanier
Dave, this is an awesome blog. Am also really impressed on how you are relying on the Lord and not soliciting. That speaks volumes about the authenticity of what you are sharing.
I identify with your message. I finally had enough of being encouraged to become known as a good person as a christian. This theology is pretty embedded in today’s churches. I am to the point, I would rather be with the “bad” people. They need Jesus.
I know the truth. I am “not” a good person, and have a really bad history before becoming a christian, and it has taken years to overcome many things in my life after becoming a christian. To say that I really screwed up, even after becoming a christian, would be an understatement. (I won’t go into the details). But Jesus has been faithful, and to this day keeps whispering in my ear, to go this way, or think about things that way. What an encouragement! Nugget by nugget, somehow, there is some improvement. It is like climbing a cliff, one spike at a time, one handhold there, a grasp over here and maybe a leap to another spot always looking for the next handhold. But what makes me secure, is the lead Climber who has the rope, is well, Jesus. If I slip, he has the rope. Then I just swing back, and start working the cliff again. Yeah, the slip ups can be painful. But I’ll never quit. And you learn from your painful mistakes. Jesus knows the ropes.
Barbara Jansson
Thank you for your message today. I am one of those “messy” people. My husband died 15 years ago after an 8-year illness, and I fell apart and needed psychiatric meds. I was advised to “move on” with my life after a few months of his death. He was and is the love of my life. As a shy widow, I have “fallen through the cracks” of 3 churches. I don’t make friends in church easily (although I don’t seem to have that problem at work). Everyone is very friendly, but almost no one goes the extra distance to ask me out for coffee or lunch. I do the asking, and half the time, the people are too busy. (My previous church was small; I attended for 10 years, in the choir and Praise Team, but the choir director left and the music changed drastically and I gradually stopped going. I didn’t attend for 2 years, and it was only when they heard I had started going to a new church that the Pastor’s wife and her friends tried to get me to “friend” them on Facebook. They had never noticed me before!) I have learned the hard way that “laugh, and the world laughs with you; cry, and you cry alone,” so I keep on taking my meds so I can smile my way through life, even though it is exhausting. I am a nice woman, not whiney or clingy, and I have gone to my new church a dozen times, introducing myself each time to the people at the door and the people in the pews, filling out the contact card twice–nothing. So I stopped going, because I feel so conspicuous with everyone else laughing and talking to each other before and after the service. My point is, don’t give up on the messy ones, the quiet ones, the inconspicuous ones. I know God loves me; it sustains me in my devotions. Go on youtube and listen to Pepper Choplin’s “We are not alone” sung by either the Illini school chorus or the Royal Singers. It will lift your heart.
Dave Burchett
Hi Barbara,
My heart aches as I hear about church communities that have not welcomed you and loved you. I pray that you will find such a place.