Take out a 10 year old or take out the ankle? I was playing
basketball at the Y years ago. We started a pickup game and it was mostly adults,
but some kids came along we allowed to play. During the middle of the game,
someone stole the ball on our team and was running down the court. I was trying
to catch up running fast (Well pretty fast for me). Then one of the 10 year old
boys ran cross court in front of me. I had two choices, plow this kid over or
try to stop on a dime. I tried stopping. I missed the kid, but my ankle made a
loud weird crackle that you hear from crumbling up newspaper or wrapping paper.
I severely sprained my ankle that day.
It took over two months for my foot to heal. It’s amazing
how the human body is wrapped together. You need multiple different parts in
different sections to wrap together in order to properly work together. It’s
the same with the church.
Colossians 2:2…
“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and untied
in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in
order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ.”
Paul was talking about people in a place called Laodicea
that I believe we can apply today. Encouraged in heart, when was the last time
you felt encouraged? When was the last time you encouraged someone else? Paul
called for the people to be encouraged and united in love.
The word united is a Greek word meaning to bring together.
This word also means to be a unit, unite or to combine. In Ephesians 4:16 it
talks about this in regards to the body, united by bringing every ligament
together. In this scripture it talks about being united in love.
I haven’t felt united in love for a while. Since being
forced out of my previous church, I have had some bitterness towards some
people since leaving it two years ago, that bitterness was still around. This
weekend I went on spiritual journey called the Emmaus Walk. I highly recommend
going on this walk. It brought to my attention the fact I was trying to walk in
faith like I was walking on a sprained ankle and thinking I was fine. I wasn’t
united in love and that was my fault.
It doesn’t mean that the situation is resolved. It does
mean, I have forgiven those people and no longer have bitterness against the
people that hurt me. What they do with that is between them and God, it’s out
of my control. I am not going to be bitter about it anymore regardless.
An ankle can’t work correctly without ligaments tying it
together and the church can’t function correctly with that love.
Who do you need to show love and forgiveness too? Who do you
need to try and unite with today?
Have a great day.
