When we were first locked down, I started actively trying to care for and encourage several different groups of people. Having spent weeks at home after a surgery, I was aware of the challenges of isolation. I worked at regular emails, calls and texts. Most people responded, some more honestly than others.
A few more weeks and I hit a wall. Budgets were hammered, work got hard, people
around me were grumpy, and my healing stalled.
I crawled into a hole and hid from the world. As part of my escape, I stopped contacting
the groups I had been trying to support.
No one noticed.
Last month I posted a piece in the style of a psalm,
preaching to myself to trust in God to find joy. In there was a pretty loud statement that I
was not doing well. I got 31 likes and a
scolding for not being in church in person.
Not a single person contacted me to pray, talk or help.
James 2: 16 If…one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the
body, what good is that?
At the same time, my social media feed is filled with
churchgoers raging about the election, covid, rights, and the economy. The church has become hard soil, distracted
by life, fruitless, useless.
If I am typical of the way people are being treated or
ignored, then there is precious little love going around and the body is failing to
fulfil its mandate to love people and lead them toward Jesus. As such, we are doomed unless we repent. And I am as guilty as anyone. Go read Revelation 2:1-7.
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