The words and the Word

Hello friends,

Jim touched on something the other day in his sermon that has been rattling around in my brain ever since. The sermon dealt with fear, and what it looks like as a Christian to deal with the fear in our lives. Nobody lives without fear, it's something we all deal with on a daily basis. But when dealing with fear, and consulting with friends about it, one of the annoying refrains that Christians seem to throw at each other is "Oh, just trust Jesus. It'll be better."

Really? 

Does that provide any sense of comfort to the person in question? Or what if the person in question is already trusting Jesus, but still feels fear? What if the fears themselves are wrapped up in what trusting Jesus looks like (a prospect that honestly should scare us more than it does I think)? There are more than a handful of situations where the words "Just trust Jesus" don't fit. In fact, they can be harmful. 

But as I mentioned, that all got me thinking. A cursory glance through my twitter timeline this week led me to a handful of sayings that we seem to try to make fit in every situation, even when they don't. Sometimes I even get a bit nervous when we post random pieces of scripture that are taken completely out of the context in which they were meant. For instance, did you know that the saying "Where two or more are gathered, I am with them" comes from a teaching about disciplining an unrepentant sinner? 

I mean, I get it. The twitter world attempts to solve every nail with a 140 character hammer. But our words are at times worthless. Our words can only take us so far. Our words, more often than we'd like to admit, fall flat and much shorter than we intended. 

But Jesus does not. 

Jesus himself is THE Word of God made flesh. When God speaks words, whole galaxies come into being. When Jesus speaks, light breaks into darkness. When the Spirit speaks, an entire movement within the Church is born. When the Word speaks, things start happening. 

And so maybe for those of us who are in ministry, we should spend a little less time coming up with and finding pithy sayings that are meant to encourage in every situation, a one size fits all piece of theological encouragement, but rather we should spend a little more time inviting the Word made flesh into our ministries and our conversations. Maybe we should invite Jesus to put a fresh word on our tounges every time we are bold enough to represent him publicly, to those who need to hear from him most. Maybe instead of tweeting about a situation, we could spend a bit more time meeting with the people behind the situation. 

Just some food for thoughts. Happy Wednesday everyone!