You're the Problem! - article by Joel Hempel
My friend and our onetime vacancy pastor, Ed Arle, sent a devotion that began like this:
In a Charlie Brown cartoon, Charlie was sitting with his chin in his hand, thinking about life in general, when Lucy came up to him and said: “Discouraged again, Charlie Brown? Do you know what your problem is? You’re whole problem is YOU."
Charlie turned to her and asked, “Well, what in the world can I do about that?”
Lucy replied, “I don’t pretend to be able to give advice—I merely point out the obvious.”
What is obvious about us?
In Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Scott pointed out what is not necessarily obvious to the world: God has already begun creating a “new heaven and a new earth” among us. The vision God revealed to John is promised to all who believe and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord: It is heaven with life in the presence of God who will wipe away every tear. Death will be no more; neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain.
That will be then. We can count on it! But what about now?
Each of us, as well as GLC as a congregation, has an opportunity. When the woman at the well went back to her town of Sychar to invite them to come and see the Christ and experience him for themselves, she and each townsperson had a decision to make: How would they be going forward? For those–like the woman at the well–who were graced to receive Christ as the promised Savior, would they continue to grow in the Christian faith? Would they resist Satan’s attempts to draw them away from the truth? Would they seek ways to serve Christ and care for one another?
There will always be a Lucy who will be quick to point out the problems with the church and with individual Christians. And, one doesn’t have to be an investigative reporter to identify the problems. We would be wise to take the criticism seriously. But most of our energy needs to go into living the faith God has given to us. We will never have heaven on earth. But we can intentionally work toward looking like the kingdom of God we pray for in the Lord's Prayer.
As we enter the vision process this fall, we can ask God to show us more clearly what he is calling us to be at GLC.
