Good evening! My blog tonight is again by my college friend, Frank Myer! Frank, a prolific writer, pens a weekly devotional that is excellent! Keep me in your prayers as, Lord willing, I am in Vietnam!
Good Morning, Dear Friends,
Fall is in the air. It’s down to 92 here in Dallas as I write this. Time flies.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to Yellow House, Pa. It’s a wide spot in the road. The importance is it’s a wide spot close to Camp Manatawny where I went to camp as a kid and where the reunion of Northeastern Christian Junior College was held.
Meeting, greeting, and catching up with people I haven’t seen in decades was a healthy blast to the soul. What amazed me is how quickly we connected. I met the siblings of two good friends.
We are a part of community.
Genesis 1, which just happens to be the fist chapter of the first book in the Bible states: Let us make man in our image.
Us and our are community words. Community means relationships.
The key is what kind of relationships are you building? It’s a chore to build the right kind. It’s a blessing that transcends time when you do.
The Bible has a thing or two to say about how to build solid relationships. Not only the Bible but a fellow named Martin Buber had a thing or two to say.
In 1923 he wrote a book titled Ich and Du. Most Americans would read the title as I and Thou. I read Mr. Buber’s book, the English version, twenty years ago. That put me in the same company as Martin Luther King, jr. He referenced the book in his sermons.
The industrial revolution was building steam and companies were treating workers more as additional parts than humans. Buber had comments to make.
I and Thou covers how we relate to each other.
We all are the “I”. No surprise there. The trick part is how you see others.
We see others as Thou – a person, or “IT” as a means to accomplish a goal. Maybe it’s to produce a good for the company. Perhaps you see the other person as a way to introduce you to someone higher up the ladder, whether social or business.
The key is you see the other person as a way to get something that benefits you. You have no concern for the well being of that person. Probably shouldn’t do that.
The “I, It” relationship is prevalent today. We see it all over the place. Sad to say, we even see it in church relationships. No surprise, this isn’t a new activity. James wrote about how people ought to be treated at church. Check out James 2 to see if I’m making this stuff up. Hint: I’m not.
It shouldn’t take much for people to realize the “I, It” equation will give you a solid “F” on judgement day. Which brings up back to “I, Thou.”
We may feel a bit proud of ourselves because we don’t subscribe to the I, It theory. The challenge is how do you treat the Thou in the I, Thou equation.
Does the Thou fall into the “Us vs Them” bucket or the “Us Guys” bucket?
First, let me remind you, I grew up close to Philadelphia – home of Rocky and a few other historical sights. Guys is non-gender specific. It includes both men and women. For those of you reading who live in California, it covers all 154 genders there as well.
Growing up in the church, I picked up a feeling there was a big dividing line between believers and non-believers. Today we may use the term churched or unchurched. It was a sense of Us verses Them, and we all knew we didn’t want to be like them.
Then the light switch came on. Some would call it an epiphany. I decided to call it moving up the learning curve of life.
We have more in common than we don’t.
Mister Church – and Mister UnChurch have a lot in common. How can that be? They want a happy life. They want their kids to be happy, safe and grow up to be decent people. They want to enjoy their hobbies. They want to find love. They both experience disappointments, heartaches, and sheer sadness at the loss of a loved one.
There is a difference though. A huge difference. To achieve the similar goals, the path chosen to get there is miles apart. We, the believers, know we can’t make it on our own. We must have God in order to make it. The other side, not so much.
They may use all sorts of methods to get there. Methods we know from reading the Bible, listening to other people’s stories, and from personal experience will fail.
How do you treat the other side? Do you take joy in pointing out their faults and are more than happy to let them know they’re headed to Hell in a handbasket. (We can talk about if they are really going to Hell or not later.) It’s how you treat the other side.
Look at Jesus felt about the rich, young ruler. Mark tells us Jesus loved him. I imaging Jesus saw the tragedy in the man’s choices and his heart hurt for the guy who turned away.
Does your heart hurt for people, or is there a bit of gloating you’re not in the same boat?
Until we get to the point where we realize it’s an “Us Guys” situation we’re living in our hearts won’t grow to where they need to be.
Until you realize God loves the Mister Unchurched just like He does you, you are not going to move up the learning curve.
Romans 5 tells us while we were sinners God loved us. Oh, man. We like that part. We realize God loved us before we got our act together. The more we understand that love the more we work to improve our act, but the fact is God loved us when we were a mess.
Can you guess what’s next? The hard part.
We are to love others before they get their act together. Ouch.
How do you love someone who is so different from you? How do you love someone who stands for something you despise? How do you love someone who has hurt you deeply? The list goes on.
First, let’s be candid. It’s a challenge. It’s easy to let the pain dictate how we feel and act toward the other person. There is almost no resistance to the feeling of give them a dose of what they gave us. We’re even able to use a Bible verse – an eye for an eye – to justify our actions.
The problem is that’s not what Jesus tells us to do. And since he was there at the very start when this whole community, relationship thing kicked off on Day 1, I suppose he knows what he’s talking about.
It takes work. A lot of work. Some people take more work than others.
Until we move from a “Us v Them” to “Us Guys” we will be fighting a battle we can not win. We will be fighting what God intended.
The big question is how do you get there?
Realize where you need to be
Ask God for help to get there. James 1 – ask God for wisdom
Build your community with people who will help you grow –
One of the major blessings I have in life are the friends I’ve made at church and college. Last weekend brought that into focus.
Find and read the book – I and Thou – Martin Buber.
Read your Bible and practice.
Enjoy the ride,
Frank Myer
Dallas, TX
FrankMyer.com
Steve
Luke 18:1
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