One of the things I have learned in life is timing is God’s. This article is only going to be a little about what I thought it might be about. Honestly, most of my articles I never end up saying what I was thinking I was going to say when I first thought of writing them. Two weeks of talking to Jesus about it, and it better look different!
Last week I wrote on Wednesday and thought, “Hey, that was kind of nice not to have to do that over the weekend. Maybe I should always do that.” But God didn’t want me to this week. Probably because He wanted to change what the article said before it was written.
Families are curious things. I don’t think most people, myself included, really understand what they are supposed to be. I think this is really sad. Devastating. Because God says that we are a part of His family. He speaks of us using terms that identify us as family. He doesn’t say we are “like” brothers and sisters. He says we are brothers and sisters, and that is an incredibly different thing. Biological ties are breakable. Spiritual ones formed through Christ aren’t.
Today I experienced the love of Christ through people. I have experienced this a lot over the last few months. God has poured out His love on me through people in a way I have never experienced before. People, who know nothing of the fire I am in, open the door of their vehicle, wave enthusiastically and call, “Hey Laura!”, or notice me singing at the weirdest times, or patiently answer one more text, or let me know that God’s love for me is unconditional when I have needed to know that the most. I have randomly run into the most unlikely people who have shown me love in the last few months. It has been pretty incredible.
Not everyone cares, but some do.
So I have experienced some pretty incredible love within the family of God during this time. But some things also really bother me, and I wonder if the American church at all understands what a family is. We declare we are God’s family; but if we think we are living that out, we are content with a really dysfunctional family.
Do you know of any families where the 25-year-old sibling was living in luxury and the 5-year-old sibling was starving because of conditions outside of their control and the older sibling decided to spend 97.5% of their income on their own care and pleasure and let the 5-year-old starve? Under what conditions would you call that love? What would it take for you to term the older sibling generous? I am just wondering.
These are the kind of questions that trouble me. Are we a family? Do we believe that we are a family? Do we act like we are a family?
Is it okay to act like this if we are a family?
I don’t mean to condemn anyone. My love doesn’t look near as much like Jesus’ as it should or could. I just wonder if we believe anything we say or if we just say it because we think God wants us to say it. Like somehow if we use the words Jesus used that fulfills what He invited us to be.
I don’t think it does. The Bible doesn’t say to call other believers my siblings. It says they are my siblings. It doesn’t say that I am part of something like the body of Christ. It says I am a part of the body of Christ. It’s not supposed to be like a family. It is a family. It is not supposed to be like a body. It is a body.
These things plague me. How will we ever see God’s kingdom explode on earth if we term giving 25 cents out of every $10 generosity?
If this is as good as goodness gets, then God is really broken too.
Earlier today I was thinking that if God wants me to give everything and by everything He means 10%, I just want to quit. If that is all of me He wants, who cares? If that is all of me He can use, then He is the most disappointing God I have ever had. The most disappointing Lover. Which jealous lover doesn’t want their loved one’s full attention?
I also was conversing with Him about something else when I accidentally said illusioned instead of disillusioned. Which had me asking Him important questions like, “How can we be disillusioned if illusioned isn’t even a word? or is it?” He never answered that question.
So that is what has been running through my head these days. The family of God is pretty incredible, but does it have any idea that it is a family?
Do you believe God has a family? Are you part of this family? Do you actually act like you are that connected to other believers? How are you feeding your siblings who are starving?
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