Memorial Day weekends are notoriously low attendance Sundays at Cornerstone. They are also one of my favorite weekends. This year proved to be no exception. We tend to be much more layed-back on these holiday weekends - "unplugged".
Brian never got to his teaching for this week. He began by reading a letter to us from a former attender that moved to another state several years ago. She was thanking us for the impact that our Body had on her life during her time here and the effects it has continued to have in her new life. It was a blessing to be reminded of the profound ways we can impact another person and not even know what we've done. Or what God has done, when we're willing to take the time to invest in others...
The "planned" teaching never came after that - what followed was an open, honest discussion within our Body. The discussion itself was confessional, encouraging, exciting,-- and it really got me to thinking about how we interact with one another as a Body.
It seems to be almost universally true (at least in the American church), that when life becomes hard (and it will), our first instinct is to turn inward; we pull away from those around us; we begin to think that no one else understands - no one else has gone through this - no one else really cares, God can't love me now, they can't love me now, etc.
Why do we do that? Scripture tell us - "The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience." (1 Cor. 10:13) Yet, almost the first thing we do is decide that no one else gets it... We're such prideful people.
Am I really the first person to go through this? Is this really the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone?
The next part of that verse - "And God is faithful." - He knows this is going to happen. And He gave us each other to help fight it!
To be fair, we sometimes make it hard for others to open up to us because we put up such self-righteous "I've got it all together, thank you" faces and cause people to feel like maybe they are the only ones fighting this particular battle. We need to stop that too.
If I'm honest about my brokenness, two things will happen: I'll get the help I need - that God has provided in the Body of Christ - to get past that thing. AND I'll make it easier for the next guy to be honest about their brokenness, because they've seen it work in someone else.
Being honest is really hard, really scary... because honestly, sometimes it bites you in the butt and you end up getting hurt. But other times - most of the time - it's beautiful, and so worth it.
So here's another of the courageous things I want to do... I want to be more honest about my brokenness... how about you?
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