Last
week, in our discussion about The
Cure: What if God Isn’t Who You Think He Is and Neither Are You, by John Lynch, Bruce McNichol and Bill Thrall, we considered the
issue of what happens when Christians hurt each other (and why), and the
experiences of too many people when the hurt comes not from an individual but
from a church.
Aside from the hurt, the problem worsens when
we become preoccupied with it, dwell on it, and work it over and over again in
our minds. That’s when the sin done to us becomes our sin.
Every one of us has examples of being hurt. And
while I can only speak for myself, I suspect every one of us has examples of
turning the sin into our sin.
But we can choose a different path, say the
authors of The Cure, and it starts
with weariness, when we become so weary of dwelling on the hurt that we do the
only thing we can do.
We turn to God.
We repent.
And perhaps for the first time ever, I
understood what repentance actually is.
“Repentance isn’t doing something about my sin,”
the authors write. “”It is admitting I can’t
do anything about my sin. It is trusting only God can cleanse me, and only He
can convince me that I’m truly cleansed.
“God never tells me to get over something and
just get past it. Instead, He asks me to trust Him with every circumstance.”
Even the circumstances when we’re hurt.
Especially the circumstances when we’re hurt.
Repentance isn’t remorse or regret. It is an
active word, a turning over all of the hurt, the sin, the problems, all of the
baggage from our lives, including our recent lives, and admitting we can’t do anything
about it.
So that hurt from the busybodies’ gossip at
church?
That time when the church nearly wrecked itself
trying to become the next Willowcreek?
When the choir was unceremoniously dismissed
and replaced with a rock band?
That time when a pastor failed, or was failed
by the church?
Or when the elders made a dumb decision and ran
over anyone in their path who raised an objection?
Or when you found out you wouldn’t be seeing a
live pastor during worship but only someone on a video screen?
Or when the hymnals disappeared from the church
pews, replaced by repetitious choruses on a projector screen?
Or when the Sunday School classes were
reorganized into demographic interest groups?
You can name more. I can, too.
I can name so many that I’ve come to the point
of weariness.
The point of repentance.
It’s time to trust that God knows what He’s
doing, and he doesn’t need my valuable input to do it.
Led by Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter, we’ve
been discussing The Cure. Today concludes our thoughts on Chapter 5, Two
Healings. To see more posts on this chapter, please visit Jason at Connecting to Impact.
Photograph
by George Hodan via Public
Domain Pictures. Used with permission.
