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I've just read a post by Matt B Redmond in which he talks about the idea of a "messy" christian life. In it he talks about his boys having to do some cleaning up:
"Last night, we asked our boys to clean up the den because it was messy. Legos were everywhere. Their socks and shoes were scattered across the room. Library books covered one area. So they cleaned it up."At the end one reader left a comment:
"Part of the blessing of the Christian walk is just the fact that the Spirit shows us that there are Legos all over the floor, and there isn’t just something wrong with our feet."Anyone who has ever stepped on Lego with bare feet will know how extremely painful it is!
But as I pondered the comment, I was struck by the idea that while the Spirit warns against the 'Lego', this is the antithesis of what the 'church' so often does.
To further the analogy, it seems that whenever people point out that there is Lego lying all over the church floor, and that someone is bound to get hurt by it, they are told that it is their feet that are the problem. Instead of looking at the mess and cleaning it up together, leaders tend to blame the one who has pointed out the mess.
Apparently, the trouble is not that Lego is sharp and causes pain when stepped on. The problem is that people have feet that are just too sensitive!
I think I'll listen to the Spirit, thanks!
I toyed with the idea of further explaining what I meant in that comment, but I'm glad I didn't because I really like where you went with it.
ReplyDeleteI was originally talking about how before having our blinders taken off in the Spirit, there are so many things in our lives that are causing us pain, but we don't have the frame of reference to even see that something is wrong -- other than the pain.
Your application to the church is a good one.
While we supposedly believe that we are being gradually sanctified and perfected through the work of the Spirit, but the "church" seems to be very much resistant to that same kind of correction when things are pointed out as being wrong. There is often even resistance to the thought that things even could be wrong.
People walk into our churches and happen to get hurt left and right, but no one seems too concerned with determining what it is that is hurting them.
Thanks for your comment here - and for the one which prompted my thinking. One of the things I love about the internet is the opportunity it gives us to bounce ideas off each other and how we can end up so much more enriched by it :)
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