Picture if you will… a room full of angry people. One after the other, they line up to criticize and belittle a group of leaders. The stress of it all happening time and time again, begins to divide the leaders and pit them against each other. The core values that normally guide decisions are lost in the chaos, confusion, and the pain.
When the focus of any group is pulled toward responding to anger or hurt of any kind, leaders can unravel. Trust me, I am living it in my life right now. The spotlight is HOT. It’s easy to lose focus when voices are all saying different things and telling me I should do any wide range of things that can simply make my head spin and my stomach turn.
How does a Christian lead in a world that is so noisy? For me, I hold tight to the cross quite literally. My pastor gave the members of our congregation prayer crosses that fit perfectly in my hand. The cross is chunky and rests comfortably in my palm allowing me to wrap my fingers around the smooth edges.
One cross is kept on my desk. Each morning when I read my devotions and pray, the cross is in my hand. The other… because I asked for a spare… is kept in my purse. I cannot tell you the number of times that it has been pulled from the pocket of my handbag and clutched so tightly I thought I might lose the feeling in my hand as prayers flowed for myself and for others.
Faith grounds us…if we let it. The challenge is to not lose focus and allow faith to slip to the outer edges of our thought processes. Faith needs to be front and center as we try to make a way through the noise of this life. Faith reminds us that Christ died for ALL of us. If the risen Savior died for each one of us, and I believe in every fiber of my being it is true, that knowledge quiets the noise and settle our hearts.
Even church folk can get noisy. We can divide ourselves over building projects, parking lots, and homecoming dinners. We can say things to each other at council meetings that cut like a sword through the gut. We can become the names we call each other. Faith reminds us that God calls us his own. The names and questions swirling in our minds, cease when we live into the names, he gives us. We know he calls us by name. We know we are beloved.
Faith helps us look at our neighborhoods as mission fields. Discipleship isn’t about getting ourselves to heaven alone. We are called to bring others to Christ. How can they know and have faith if they have never been introduced to the God we know? How will they ever find salvation if we don’t let them know it’s possible? He sent his only son to die for their sins as surely as he died for ours.
I can remember joining one of my adult daughters for dinner with a group of her friends in the city she now calls home. There was a flurry of questions! I was surprised how many of the things they asked were about my faith. I will never forget one of the young women saying to me…” I know Jesus loves me. I am not at all sure the church does.” I took her by the hand, looked her in the eye, and said… “Let me help you find a new church.”
My faith tells me we all need God. It also tells me that God loves that young woman who feels cast aside…as much as he loves me. Above all else, people need to see and feel the love a life with Christ offers when they are with us. Grace, forgiveness, and acceptance should quiet the noise. Turning the volume down allows light to break through the broken pieces of all our lives. We should want that for each other. We should help each other live a life with the Holy Spirit here and now.
As we move toward Easter, don’t lose focus. The details behind that empty cross mean so much to Christians. Every person who crosses our paths as people united and called to be “Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” …deserves to have us take them by the hand and help them experience the God we know. The God who calls us…all of us…his own.
“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples-when they see the love you have for each other.” John 13:34-35 The Message
If you would like to view past editions of A Message from Kim, follow this link: https://sounddistrictnc.org/category/from-district-lay-leader/
If you would like to connect with Kim please do so through her email, k.smith@nccumc.org