Spiritual Lessons - Learning The Hard Way
April 22, 2008
Several months ago I was having a conversation with a man who has been in church and in church leadership most of his life. He’s been a prominent figure in his church. We were discussing one of the specific teachings of Jesus. It was one of those passages that I imagine he’s taught from at church at some time in the past. Toward the end of the conversation he said these words that took me by surprise: “Sometimes that just doesn’t work in real life.”
Now, it didn’t really surprise me that he said that. To be honest I think a lot of people in church think those very thoughts about some of the difficult teachings of Scripture on a regular basis. Love your enemy? Turn the other cheek? If your enemy is hungry give him something to eat, if he’s thirsty give him something to drink. They sound good in Sunday School, but not so much at home, at work, in Wal-Mart or anywhere else we might call “real life.” That’s really no surprise. What surprised me is that he admitted it publicly.
That’s because thinking about those things is nice. We thump our self-righteous chests and give a hearty, “Amen!” We’ve heard those words so often in our lives we can’t do anything else. But in the heat of the moment they seem so impractical. We hear them like we hear Jesus’ words, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” We nod recognizing that Jesus said them, somewhat unsure of what he really meant by them, but pretty sure he didn’t mean what it sounds like he meant. It is a standard he could meet, for sure, but the rest of us are frail creatures of dust for whom those things we could never envision being a reality.
But I believe Jesus really meant for us to begin to do the things he taught his disciples to do. It’s part of the Great Commission: “teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded you.” And he’ll provide us plenty of opportunity for practicing them.
I remember my first mission conference back in 1993. All I wanted was to be on the field. Well, it took over 13 years but I’m here and it’s so much harder than they presented it at that conference. When I share with people there’s no mood setting music in the background, the poor people aren’t in black and white, and there are no parades with flags from around the world.
This is much harder!
I would have said the same not too long ago, Paul, but a couple of years later, with a little crazy faith, and I have found God to be faithful to His promises. Oh that people would be willing to walk by faith and not by sight. Oh that I would all the time rather than just sometimes.