When I was younger, I always thought "church" was just the building I traveled to on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. I thought "church" was what made me good. As God has revealed himself to me over the past couple of years in ways I would have never imagined, I have gained new insight on what "church" is.
There's a big C church and a little c church. Little c church is the church you call your home. For me, growing up, that would have been the small Lutheran church across town, in high school the mega church in town, and now, a growing church located in a movie theater. I think little c churches are important, but I think God focuses on big C Church. Big C Church is the Body of Christ. Big C Church is all of God's children from all over the world. Big C Church spans all the way from the cornfields of Illinois, all the way to the bustling streets across the world in China. How exciting is it that when we accept Jesus as our Savior, we become part of the body that is the body of believers, the family of God, big C church.
A wise friend friend of mine puts it like this:
"Being a part of the body of Christ requires you to interact with other parts of the body, people who may look different than you, have different passions, different talents, yet the same Spirit and the blood of Christ coursing through their veins." - Elise Ashenfelter
How cool is that? We are all so different, yet one in Christ. For we are His body. We all have different functions, different ways in which we serve the world and share the Good News of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul goes into further detail discussing the Body of Christ:
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. (v. 12-13 NLT)
As believers, we have become one in Christ, despite our differences. We are parts of one big body, the Big C Church.
How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, "I don't need you." The head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you." (V. 19-21 NLT)
I love that. We cannot look at one another and say "I don't need you, for you are different." How do you expect the Body to function if it were only a foot. How would it see? How would it taste? Hear? We all need one another. This brings me to my recent revelation I've had while thinking about the Big C Church, the Body, and how our bodies work.
I have been hurt by members of the Church, parts of the Body. Bitterness owned my heart for a few months as I worked through the thoughts of "how could the Church do this to me?" Often times my prayer would be "God, how could Your own people do this to me?" I understand that we are imperfect people and we will hurt one another, however, I also have thought about the fact that when one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts.
There's a couple of different ways you can look at this.
Think about a time you had a tooth ache. Or maybe a back ache, shin splints, or a sore muscle. Your whole body seems to hurt just because of that one injury or pain, right? It seems to be all you can think about when you move. When one part of the Body is hurting, it affects the rest of the Body. It slows down the rest of the Church.
Here's what I found interesting. As a runner, I know all about pain. Shin pain, foot pain, calf pain, and everybody knows about the dreaded butt pain. Tight bun muscles makes for a difficult run. I remember being a running camp once and learning the importance on form. If one part of our form is off, it can throw off and actually injure other parts of our body. So here is what I was thinking about. Let's say a person has a shin splint on one leg. They run through it, being stubborn as most runners and people in general are. There form becomes off and they begin to limp as the pain increases. Because they are limping and have changed their running form, it is likely they may injure another part of the body. Perhaps the knee of the other leg, for they are probably running heavier on that leg.
If one part of the Body of Christ is hurting, the Church will start hurting and will affect other parts of the Body.
This is why I think it is important to remember how important and fragile people are. We are called to be Jesus to hurting people. Often times I think we assume that means people outside of Christ. But I think we often neglect the hurting people in our Church! I don't think Jesus neglected his own Body, so why would we neglect ours? Why wouldn't we take care of the Body around us? Now, by no means am I saying don't love on those outside of the Church. We are called to GO and make disciples, sharing the Good News as we go. But I do believe that with a crippled Body, other parts will begin hurting and the Church will not be as effective in ministering to those outside of the Body of Christ.
When one part hurts, the whole Church hurts. When one part remains untreated, other parts will become affected and may become hurt as well.
This being said: May we never forget the Good News that Jesus Saves. God is bigger than our hurts and God is a God of restoration. There is nothing to far broken, no Part too badly injured for God to heal, mend, and restore.
Steps of Faith
Leaps
I was prepared to grow in many different ways during my first semester of college. I was told it would be tough, but I was excited to see how God was going to work. As I reflect on the summer before this first semester, I realized that I had many prayers asking God to stretch me, use me, grow me:
"Lead me in the direction You want me to go."
"Help me to see things the way you do."
"Help me to trust and believe that You are right here next to me."
"May You be the most important influence in my life."
"God, change me and shape me from the inside out."
"Shape my heart to love like you and change my mind to think like you, think of you in every situation."
"God, open the doors that need to be opened. Help me to know what is best."
"Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me. (Psalm 69:15 ESV)"
"Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. (Psalms 51:12 NLT)"
"Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you. (Psalms 86:11 NLT)"
These are just a few of the prayers i have prayed over the past 6 months asking God to grow me and strengthen my faith.
As i think back over the past few years I'm reminded of "steps" of faith I have taken in order to follow God. I think He reminds us of our faithful times as encouragement. It's as if He's patting us on the back saying "Well done, good and faithful servant. Now keep steppin'." I thought of my Junior year when I decided to drop soccer in order to have time to be able to focus on God and my relationships. Step of faith. I remember the time I began stepping into pursing a youth ministry degree. I remember stepping into the decision of attending a Christian college. All steps of faith I am grateful for and am thankful God led me in that direction.
There is a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. that I discovered early in my faith journey, and I remember it being an encouraging, influential quote.
"Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase."
Don't get me wrong, I still love this quote and the imagery remains in my mind when thinking of following God. Keep on walking, even if we cannot see all of where we are going. One step at a time.
However, I have come to learn over the past few months that sometimes God requires more than a step of faith. He requires a leap.
What's the difference?
Well, with a leap, it requires you to leave everything behind. No turning back. When taking a step, you have your feet in two places at once. It allows you to make sure the upcoming steps is firm and stable as we slowly transfer our weight from one step to the next. A leap requires 100% faith that your feet are going to land on solid ground. You can't be in two places at once. It requires you to go all in. You may not even be able to see where you're going to land, but that's where faith comes in. It requires us to have faith that if you leap, God will provide a landing. Not only will he provide a landing, I think He also is standing there, arms open, ready to catch us, like a father waiting in a pool for a child to jump in the seemingly bottomless vat of water. A leap of faith is faith based, trust based. There is no going back.
"I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back...though none go with me, I still will follow." - I Have Decided by Elevation Worship
When I think of leaps of faith in the bible, a few different people come to mind.
Noah.
Noah was a man of God. They were tight, they were bros. The bible says Noah walked in close fellowship with God (Genesis 6:9). The world was completely broken, sinful, and faithless, and Noah was the only blameless man living on the earth at the time (Genesis 6:9). God being God and knowing everything, knew this, and told Noah to build a gigantic boat because it was going to rain a ton. So that sounds pretty crazy, right? It gets crazier. Noah along with all the people on the earth at that time had never seen rain. Up until that time, the land was arrogated from the bottom up (how cool is that?! Our water bills would go down so much if this were still the case. But sin happened, so now we have high water bills in the summer.) So, Noah builds this huge boat. In the middle of the desert because God told him it was going to rain. A lot.
Noah had absolutely no reason to follow this commend other than his faith in God. It made no sense whatsoever. Yet, Noah trusted God. Noah had faith that God would come through, that God would catch him. So Noah leaped. He left behind is reputation, his perceived sanity, his friends, his neighbors and Noah leaped.
The First Disciples.
One day, Jesus was strolling along the beach of the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers - Simon (aka Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing because this was how they made a living. Jesus seemed to think these men were the men for the job so he said "Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!" (Matthew 4: 19). They left their nets at once and followed him. Okay now let's think about this for a second. Peter and Andrew are fishing because this is how they make a living. This is how they feed themselves and their family, this is how they provide. This is their livelihood. Then one day, this random dude (who happens to be the son of God) comes walking along and is like "Hey, i'll teach you how to fish for people. Let's go." and they go!! They literally leave behind everything at once and follow Jesus. I don't know about you, but I think I would have laughed at him and went on my way fishing. Heck no, I'm not leaving my job to go fish for people - what does that even mean?!
Andrew and Peter literally left behind their everything. They left behind their profession to follow Jesus. This is a leap of faith. They jumped all in, no turning back. And they didn't even flinch. They just jumped, trusting fully in Jesus.
As I continue to grow and learn what it means to follow Jesus, I am finding that often times God requires not a step, but a leap. We have to leave everything that makes sense behind, for His ways are higher than ours. We have to trust that where we leap to, there will be solid ground. God will be there to catch us. We cannot have our feet in two places at once. No more tiptoeing, testing out the ground before us. It's time to jump, it's time to leap. It requires faith, it requires trust, but God is faithful, God is trustworthy. Even if your landing pad is fuzzy, or maybe even completely in the dark. Take the leap. I dare you. God's arms stretched, ready to catch you.
Much Love.
