"To See Their Souls Well"
Last night after our launch team gathering, I was talking to a Coram Deo guy who will remain nameless. He was telling me some of the frustration he felt in trying to reach out to two friends of his who have been deeply wounded by Christians. He was identifying deeply with their pain, to the point of questioning the authenticity of his own faith. And he asked some challenging questions that deserve our consideration: Is Coram Deo really going to be any different? Won't we be guilty of the same hypocrisy, the same shallowness, the same fakeness that caused these friends to turn their backs on Christ? After all, we are a church made up of people... and people are sinful.
Those questions have troubled me this morning, and I hope they do the same for you. But they're not the point of this post. What I want to talk about is something else this guy said about his friends: "I'd do anything to see their souls well."
To see their souls well. I think that's the mark of whether we really love people. It's one thing to want to see people "come to Jesus" so we can be on the winning team, or get some satisfaction for our efforts, or feel like God loves us more, or have a good story to tell. But these motivations are all self-serving and shallow and ungodly. The true mark of my love for my neighbor is simply: do I long to see his soul well? Would I do anything to see him healthy and alive and thriving and in a place of soul-rest?
Thanks, nameless guy, for showing me what it means to love. I have much to learn.
Those questions have troubled me this morning, and I hope they do the same for you. But they're not the point of this post. What I want to talk about is something else this guy said about his friends: "I'd do anything to see their souls well."
To see their souls well. I think that's the mark of whether we really love people. It's one thing to want to see people "come to Jesus" so we can be on the winning team, or get some satisfaction for our efforts, or feel like God loves us more, or have a good story to tell. But these motivations are all self-serving and shallow and ungodly. The true mark of my love for my neighbor is simply: do I long to see his soul well? Would I do anything to see him healthy and alive and thriving and in a place of soul-rest?
Thanks, nameless guy, for showing me what it means to love. I have much to learn.
posted by Bob | 7:48 AM
1 Comments:
Great post. It's easy to get pulled in ten different directions as we plant this church, all scripturally valid (though not equal in importance), and losing sight of the fundamentals is a concern.
For me, I feel the closest to God when I am most aware of my own sinfulness. That's when the full import of His grace resonates in me, and I'm simultaneously brokenhearted at my own failure and deliriously joyous at His Lordship and forgiveness. It is also at those moments that I see others most clearly as sinners just like me, and their need for the same comfort and hope in Christ that I have surpasses every other consideration. Isn't this the attitude you are describing? And isn't this what we mean when we say that "the Gospel changes everything?"
If we lose sight of the Gospel message, than it is a short hop to the shallow ritual and smug fraternizing anon guy was worried about. But if we are refreshing ourselves continually with the Gospel, it is hard to view others (and ourselves) any other way than desperately in need of Christ and hard to prioritize anything above helping them see that.
So we're again back to the core values. Have another serving, y'all.
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