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hammered or screwed
Let's say full life was represented by a block of wood. Whatever you think that life means, whatever your picture of a fulfilling life is, just picture it as a block of wood. Assuming you want to go into this life deeper and deeper, and remain fixed in it, what would you rather be? A nail? or a screw? Nails definitely go deeper faster; just a few whacks and they're in. Screws take more time and effort to go into the wood. The difference between the two shows up after some time has elapsed and the wood has been exposed to the elements; heat, cold, rain, stress. Nails tend to back out of the wood. Screws stay in place. You can usually tell the nail people, at least they stand out in Christian circles. They're the ones who think they got whacked on the head by God and driven completely into Jesus Christ. Then life grows cold and difficult and they feel themselves coming out of the wood. So they go find another meeting where they can be whacked back into the wood again. And so on and so on the rest of their lives until they have a form of religious brain damage from getting hit in the head so much. It is much healthier and true to view ourselves as screws turning one thread at a time into full life. There is a point at which we enter the wood; for us it is the cross of Jesus. Then, one thread at a time a Christ-follower goes further in. Each thread matters; each turning moves us in the direction we desire. It is slow going sometimes. We envy those who seem to be so deep. But we remain in his hands. We don't back out. It has cost too much to come this far. We learn to wait and we learn that the next turn into real life comes when we least expect it. And..."being confident of this, that he who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil 1:6) The questions you need to ask yourself (Christ-follower or not) are these: What is my view of a truly fulfilling life and where did it come from? What resources do I have to enter and to remain in full life? How long will that life last?
1 comment:
I can see the same applying to church planting... We started a year and a half ago from the ground up, a small team, no financial backing, and it's been grueling. Sometimes I've lamented that it would be so much easier if we would have started 'bigger' - more $$, bigger team, bigger launch - yet my husband holds firm that God is using the way we're doing things to build us strong...we've had to live by faith for finances, and though our growth has been somewhat slow (we're up to 50 currently) all of those people are very committed - every single one is plugged into a small group and trying to get involved in some aspect of the church life. So I guess that sometimes the being the nail can be easier, cuz it's quicker, but in our case, being screwed in will hopefully give us that staying power that many church plants don't have.
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