Thursday, February 26, 2009

Just thinking



I have just a few moments before I need to head out for a meeting early this morning. It seems that lately the days are long and the nights are short, but as one friend told me, "I can rest when I'm dead!"

I'm just thinking this morning-

The most important thing on planet earth are the people. How do we care for and help one another through these days? How do we demonstrate God's love to those around us? What's the best way to help people with all their fears and worries in the days we are in?

It seems that this is the perfect time for the church to be what it was meant to be- the body of Christ on planet earth caring for one another and demonstrating the love of God for the world to see. Our culture is such an individualist society that group caring and sharing are not in our minds. We don't think as a body, as a family. We focus on "ME". What an amazing opportunity for the church to become what it was designed to be- a living, breathing body of believers madly in love with God and each other, caring for one another and demonstrating that we love each other more than we love our stuff. What a testimony we would tell if we opened our homes to one another, sharing our resources and our lives with each other.

In a time when everyone is afraid what an opportunity we have to shine a bright light on the family of God caring for one another, loving each other and sharing our lives with each other. I wonder....could we duplicate what we see in Acts 4 and 5? Could we really come together and care for each other in this way? This morning I'm just thinking about what could be......

6 comments:

Renee' said...

Mike...beautiful point. Thank you for encouraging all of us to "shine". Our church is one of those giant spotlights you see in the night or a lighthouse on a stormy sea. We are so blessed to have our church family at CBC. Thank you for "shining" to our family!

Anonymous said...

Mike, I thank you for your encouragement for the body of Christ to actually be Christ like. We are so focused on ME, as you said, that we forget about letting HIM work through us. To be a servant of love without bounds is the goal.

My only remaining question is...what’s with the pic of the ape? Are you subconsciously agreeing with me about evolution? What differentiates us from animals is our ability to transcend the selfish nature of existence and actually focus on loving others. Thanks again friend.

Jeremiah


I love blogging!

Mike Messerli said...

Jeremiah,

I always use a photo of an ape for the "Just thinking" posts....signifies how shallow my little brain really is. Anytime you see the ape you will be reading some of my shallow thoughts....

Brandon and Jenny said...

Thanks for your 'shallow thoughts", Mike. They are anything but.

I thought this funny:
"What differentiates us from animals is our ability to transcend the selfish nature of existence and actually focus on loving others."

Actually, many animals display amazing altruistic behavior, sacrificing themselves for their young or to protect the herd. Of course the evolutionary explanation is that it keeps the genes going. I think it's to teach us that if a ground squirrel can think of others before itself, maybe I can too.

It's our ability to transcend selfishness that makes our self-focused behavior so sad and tragic.

But that's not how it has to be!

I like the ape. I can't wait to see how we can interact in eternity.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha, I suppose you are right Brandon, we are no different than the animals. I guess that makes us hairless apes. Charlton heston is coming to mind. Maybe a difference is that we can contemplate the love the we chose to share while the rest of the animal kingdom is instinctual. who knows, but i doubt that ground squirrel is contemplating his own existence and making a conscious choice to love.

jeremiah

Brandon and Jenny said...

Haha. That made me laugh.

"You dang (you know the real line) dirty ape!"

Some of us are hairier than others. You ought to meet Mike Farney.

Indeed the ground squirrel is just doing what ground squirrels do. I don't think they contemplate much beyond what to eat and sleep and make more ground squirrels. That's what makes us make in God's image and the other animals not. He imparted to us an eternal soul which makes us far more than accidental physical matter.

Or ground squirrels, for that matter.