Goodbye

 People are leaving.  Children are leaving home for college or new jobs.  Husbands are leaving wives for younger women.  Employees are leaving jobs for better situations.  Friends are leaving the area, moving to new places.  And people are leaving church to go and join another worshipping community, or none at all. 

 Leaving is hard, often more so for the one who is left behind.  The suddenly single spouse who has been tossed aside must feel used and worthless.  The questions that arise out of that situation are not unlike those that are asked by the people that remain behind when someone leaves a church.  It is similar to a divorce.  A relationship is ending.  No matter that everyone involved lives in the same area.  The relationship will change because as part of a local community of worship, the main focus and deep friendships should be within that community. 
 We are called to be built up, as a building for the Lord’s purposes.  If we are connected as building blocks we cannot have divided interests and foci.  That division of focus would only weaken each community; the new one and the previous one. 

 We are also told that as the builder, God places each believer where that person is needed and can use the gifts God has given.  God directs each of His followers to the body where He wants them.  And He places them there for as long as He determines.  Often, though, we followers become independent agents deciding when to leave a church, and often we leave for reasons which are not directed by God.   When we do that, we go AWOL.  We leave a hole in the wall God was building.  We leave the church lacking our gift and service for the Kingdom. 

  Those left behind must pick up the slack we leave behind.  They also suffer from the relationship which has been changed.   

So pray and listen before deciding to leave the body where God has placed you.  It is God’s call, not our own.  He is the Head of the Body.  We need to listen and obey.

Coincidence?

Do you ever find yourself wondering if someone has been eavesdropping, listening at the keyhole?  You have been thinking about a particular problem and then a friend mentions a new book they enjoyed and it is all about your problem.  Or have you ever wondered which avenue to take and a song comes on the radio which addresses your situation exactly?  We all have these moments, when it seems some greater hand has been directing us.  Either that or we say, “What a coincidence!”  But is it really just a random course of events that happened to meet at the right time and place?   It is possible that the God Who is all powerful and all knowing is directing events so that we can find the answers we seek.

If a friend of yours asks for advice, do you not do your best to be helping them with truthful and kind words?  Why should we think God is unwilling to do the same?  Perhaps He simply replies to our requests by using others.  Perhaps He uses the song on the radio when we are driving to work or the chapter in the devotional book we use once in a great while.

 That happened to me today.  The book has lain on the table for weeks.  Today I picked it up and turned to the reading for the day.  Amazingly, it was a reiteration of what I had read in scripture just minutes before and it addressed some of my questions and doubts.  How can that happen? How can it be anything but a coincidence?  It can be because the God of Scripture, the God of this world, the God I worship, is in control of all things and has the power and ability to bring things together in such a way that I can see and  understand the message.  But beyond that,  I can see His hand in it all, which is as good as the answer to my questions, because I can see His love for me in a real and tangible way. 
He is a good Father, He a comforter.  He is there.

In The Know

When I heard about the terrorist attack in New York this past Tuesday, I found my self reading and listening and watching every news source I could access in order to find out anything new, to be updated, in the know.  The unfolding events were horrible and the tragedy grabbed at me personally, as photographs of destroyed bicycles were broadcast and then rebroadcast, for hours.  The people riding those bikes hours earlier were gone, murdered.  How could this have happened? 
As I tried to take it in and figure it out, I continued to watch, listen and read the available news sources.  It gave me a sense of control.   Thinking that if I knew what had happened and what was discovered I could somehow protect myself, I continued for hours. 

I was in the need to know. 

Until, two days later, it occurred to me that my knowledge of the tragedy did not prevent a like tragedy from happening to me or anyone else.

My knowledge is just that.  I have facts, opinion and analysis, but what I don’t have is control.  I can know about evil, but I cannot control it in another person.  Often, I cannot control the evil in myself.   So why the thirst to have that knowledge? 

In Eden, the temptation was to knowledge.  As if knowing meant control and power.  Even today, we say “Knowledge is Power.”  But in truth, knowledge is just knowledge.  It does not dispense power or control.  Knowledge is a good thing and indeed helpful in many ways.   We all, for instance, want our surgeons to be knowledgeable in their field.  We want our lawyers to be up to date on their knowledge of the law.  But their knowing, our knowing, does not translate into perfect actions.  It does not mean that all will be well.  We are all limited creatures.  Knowing good and evil does not make for doing good and not doing evil. 

The lure of knowledge was to be like God.  I will never be God and never, by knowing good and evil, be like Him.  I will be crushed with too much knowledge, I will be undone.  I am not infinite, I am not almighty, I am human.  To acknowledge that bit of news is the beginning of wisdom