Contrary to Community
January 11, 2010
Written by: Whitney Rakes
I am a fanatic bird watcher and sometimes it gets so bad that I am called “the bird lady.” Anyways, I have noticed that birds are usually most aggressive towards their own species. This has always puzzled me because a cardinal should not be fighting with another cardinal; they are on the same team and could come together for a greater purpose. Of course, they don’t see it that way and I am not going to try to reason with a couple birds. Animals are fully flesh; they do whatever their instinct is. Humans are flesh and spirit; they can choose to go by fleshly instinct or prayerfully in the spirit. If the church goes on instinct then the church becomes a contrast to community.
Okay. So now I am ready to take the bird story and make it allegorical. Many times I have witnessed and had an active part in competition amongst Christ followers and other churches. I don’t want to go out on a limb here, but I doubt God wants his kids to fight with each other. If you and I are both called to be pastors, instead of competing with each other lets cheer each other on. Whether your doctrine is different than mine or not, we all should be working to advance God’s Kingdom on earth.
So the question is, how do we stop this great contrast to community? I don’t know but I am going to share a couple thoughts that have been true and helpful in my own life.
Thought #1- Patience is really important in these moments of comparison with others. I usually don’t like to call it comparison in the moment because then I have to admit that I am in the wrong for trying to parallel other people’s lives with mine. It is what it is though. We all do it. Many times out of insecurities, but sometimes out of arrogance as well. Waiting on God is not fun, and preferably I would rather take the fast track to my destiny.
Thought # 2- Faith is key when I feel discouraged or frustrated with where God currently has placed me. There is great difficulty when trying to have faith that God has not forgotten the plans for my life. The Bible makes it clear when it states that, “…without faith it is impossible to please (Hebrews 11:6).” I always say I want to please God, but when I read that statement it makes me say “whyyyyy? (insert super whiny and nasally tone here)” I have realized that faith and patience have gone hand-in-hand every time in my life. For me, that very statement is horrible news! Not only did I not want to be patient but now I have to have faith too.
Thought # 3- Praise is super crucial because it is a tool that can be used against the ungodly thoughts and thought processes that overpopulate my mind. Now praise can be quite literal like singing a song to God, but it also can be unique to a certain situation. It can be doing something that directly combats the thoughts of competition. For example, if I was feeling tension with someone else then I would turn it around by serving that person in everyway. I would cheer them on or let them walk in front of me. Separately, those things don’t sound like a big deal, but when they are paired with praise…they become powerful and life changing.
When interacting directly with the church, I have realized how distorted my perspective has been. There are times when I have to tell myself, that I don’t need to be occupying my time thinking about whether God is going to “raise up” that other person before me. I have to be real with myself and realize that God’s Kingdom must advance, and that is far more important then my selfish need to know exactly what is going on. Competition has destroyed community in and with other churches. Instead, we fight for our event to be more successful than theirs. I just feel grieved that churches cannot even have community with one another. I feel even more grieved when I consider all the times I have fed directly into this problem. I pray that God will help me to have patience in the waiting, faith in the pitch-black room, and praise him in the obscurity of my destiny.
Oh one other thing, each moment where the desire to live instinctively is overpowered by the choice to live prayerfully we immensely grow in relationship with Jesus.
(This was also posted on Project Awaken a little while ago-Go to bottom and click on Project Awaken under our blog roll).
