You’ve heard of the missing link? Maybe he or she is looking back at you in the mirror!
It has been my experience that we often have a missing link or disconnect in our Christian lives.
I see this disconnect in discipleship where people are passionate for one cause and blind on a very similar issue.
I see it in our interaction with the world of politics. We blindly go with a party line and lose the ability to think and analyze an issue. We want to be told what to think, do and believe.
I see it in our response to sin.
Sometimes the sins we hate the most, actually have smaller tentacles in our own lives, although in a slightly different form.
– We hate sexual sin, but pay no attention to the need for modesty.
– We decry violence against women and children, but look at pornography on the side.
– We rightly believe unborn children have value yet lose interest in helping people once they have been born.
I see it when I look in the mirror.
I talk about cross culture issues, espousing servanthood over superior. Yet when I leave my blogging world, I still face the tendency to view real people and cultures with eyes of judgment and comparison.
We are a people of contradiction. We are a mess of paradoxes.
Where is the disconnect? Where does the circuit lose its power?
God didn’t just give us a rule book. He did not give us a 21 step plan to growth in the christian life. He gave us a relationship. He trusted us rather than just telling us the rules or what to think. We need to rely on Him to reveal our missing links.
Teachability and a hunger to learn and grow must remain our constant companions. The more we know, the more God will put his finger on areas in our lives that have not been touched by truth.
This truth is not something we want to carry around in our back pocket, pulling it out as a weapon to beat people with. We want truth written on our hearts.
This sounds reminiscent of the Old Testament foreshadowing. In Jeremiah 31:33, God was pointing to the future when He said “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Unfortunately the religious people from Jeremiah to Jesus (and today) where still wielding the tablets of stone as weapons.
Think about something that has aroused your “righteous indignation” recently. Ask God to show you something in your own heart which bears a resemblance. If you ask, you probably will see.
We never want to compromise truth, yet the gospel is a two-handed one. As we contemplate truth, we must keep humility and grace in our other hand. These two traits encourage us to be willing to look in the mirror and see even the dark parts of our heart.
Let’s ask God to work on our missing links.
This post is also posted on Peter Pollock’s One Word Blog Carnival. Today the word is “missing”. Head on over and have a glance at more great posts