make do

I had a great dinner conversation with someone last night. He shared about his time being away from church people and how it has been teaching him about reality. People nag him about coming back to church - his family, his church friends, everyone - and at times, the pressure seems to drive him further away.

He fumbled for words a bit before describing what he's been facing in his time away. In his words:

"I hate saying this because it's cheesy, but there's no better word to describe what I've been seeing in the world than 'brokenness.'... But I realized that when you're genuinely vulnerable with people, you start to understand their point of view."

That amazed me. It dawned on me that he's probably been learning more about Jesus in these past few months than he had been attending church regularly for 20 years. He's learning about the reality of Christ breaking into broken lives, the reality of a Jesus who's vulnerable so that he can sympathize with our weaknesses; he's encountering a Jesus that's bigger than church events.

I unabashedly love the Church and I love my church. I remember how lonely I was in high school and how grateful I am to have people around me who will help me follow Christ and who I can love and be loved by. I'm so thankful to have people to fight this fight and run this race for the gospel with. But my friend doesn't see that. He doesn't understand why people in the church didn't see reality the way he'd been seeing it in his unbelieving friends. In its messiness and brokenness.

But I've seen that brokenness and messiness in church people just the same. The flesh that lives in us is genuinely terrifying to face at times. The I-wish-you-to-hell moments we have with people we're supposed to love, the I-will-crush-you-to-get-my-due zeal that overshadows the love of Christ. I know I have it.

I see why there's reason to be frustrated at church people, but there's reason for hope. I don't think the church holds together because the people in it are less broken or more religious or have it easier in any way.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. (Colossians 1:17-18)

I invited him to come to church again, but not because the people will be better. It's because despite the junk, somehow, we have to work with who we've got, not who we'd like to have. The truth in all of it is that God will make do. He'll make something beautiful out of us. I give it all to You, God
Trusting that You'll make something beautiful out of me