Psalm 86:11
“Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I fear your name.”
This is my fourth year at
I wake up every morning fighting it; I get caught up in my day and forget that the way I look at life is through my addiction: myself. We are all addicted to ourselves in some way, shape or form. I expect you to be like me and you expect me to be like you – we are not alike because we were created by a Holy God to be different. If it were up to me, I would want us to unite in me, in what I know, in who I am… but as long as that is my tendency, unity in Christ will never occur. I need you, and you need me no matter how insane and insecure we are. We need each other. How can we hope to impact the culture around us if we continue to struggle with each other?
Today, as a school, it is time to move into a new light, and there is only one way to do that – unity in Christ. Most of you are saying, “I have heard this before, but how?’ I believe it begins first with a choice and an action. Today, we have a choice to make; are we going to sit, listen and agree, but then walk away unchanged and into the same routine as before or will we seek new ways and take that step of faith forward? Do you want to stay the same or are you like me – sick of the same struggles? We must choose to change and then act on that choice each day.
In my reading times and prayers, I keep running into this idea: more of Him? We must choose more of Him and act on that choice. But, that is such a general statement; of course we need more of Him, but how? I think it starts with a real question: Do I really believe that He is all that I need? Do you? Psalm 86:11 gives us a picture of more of Him: to learn His ways, to walk in His truth, to have an undivided heart rooted in Him and to fear His name. So, you’re sitting there saying, “Fine, how do we do this?” I think I finally know where we can begin.
First, we must be real with ourselves and with each other and that means asking real questions like: are we better this year than we were last year? Do I trust my fellow faculty and my administration? These are real questions we all wrestle with, and they have real answers, but our worldly tendency is to stop at the answers. Those that agree with us we welcome into our camp, those that don’t, well, they just don’t “get it.” Sound familiar? I say those things all the time. I believe as important as answers are (and they are important) He calls us beyond the question and beyond the answers. In order to go beyond the questions and answers, we must, first, depend on scripture as much as humanly possible. Real answers excite me, but I can not forget about the Biblical process because if I do, I will stop at the answer and stay there. The process is as important as the product, as it helps guide us forward past the answers. What does this process look like?
Real answers must first be obtained through His prescribed process; we must follow Matt 18:15 with each other! We can’t just talk about. We can’t just expect others to follow it. We must follow it. This is our first new action toward a new light because the old way is to agree and do nothing, but the new way is to agree, to act and to change. Second, real answers are great, but they will be detrimental to us if our only motivation for seeking them is to surround ourselves with those who have the same answers as ours, and, to be honest, that is the reason for most of our questions. Asking real questions with this as our only motivation will not bring unity of any kind to you, me or our school. Scripture demands something different from those who believe: we are to ask real question that lead to real answers, but we must not stop there. We must listen to those real answers… all of those real answers – those we agree with and those we do not. Why? Because the process is not finished; I believe we are to go beyond those answers because the answers, as real and as important as they are, are to lead us NOT into confirmation that we are right, but instead into true relationships with each other.
This summer I discovered this wonderful truth; it is not only about the answers (and I love answers), but it is also about the relationships with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ is not just found in His word, but He is also found in His Believers! What did Jesus say? “Where two or three gather in my name I am with them.” And this verse comes at the end of a passage dealing with the sinning Brother. It is a prescribed process of restoring the sinning Brother back into unity and fellowship with other Believers. I imagine the sinning brother had some answers that were not in agreement with the church, and those must be dealt with, but in the passage, the process does not stop with answers (as important as they are) but moves beyond answers and into the restoration of a relationship. We must strive each year, each month, each week and each day for this unity, and this kind of unity is not found in our answers but in Him.
As I conclude, let me ask a real question, and I want you think about it for a moment: are we moving in the right direction (give a moment to think)? Your minds are thinking of many different things regarding this one seemingly simple question (you may even think, how ambiguous a question). The question is purposefully ambiguous in order to bring home this point: right now, there are many different answers to this one question. Each one of us is called to provide a real honest answer to that real question, not to find those who agree with us, but to begin to build relationships with those who agree with us and those who do not. Seeking only those who agree with us is the old way and will lead no where. We must understand that our answer, regardless of what it is, is meant as an opportunity to enter into a true relationship with fellow Believers leading to a unity that is in Christ and not in our answers. We are not to define each other by our answers but by who we are in Christ. As we unite and build true relationships, we will discover that it will take all of us in Christ to discover His answers. And, then we can move forward as a body defined by Christ instead of one divided by its answers to questions. We will always have different answers to questions and we should, but those answers should never define us. Christ defines us!
So, what do we do now? Well, I don’t have an equation or formula, but I do have an idea for a beginning, and that beginning is peace. This summer our SS has been going through the Peacemaker series. One of the points hammered home to me is this: the Word states that we are to seek… peace with each other! Those who seek peace do so to discover more of Him and less of themselves… isn’t that what we want our school to be – more of Him and less of us. Isn’t that were true unity in Christ is – less of us and more of Him?
Consider Jesus as our example:
Luke 7:50 “Your faith has made you well, go in peace.”
Luke 8:45 “Your faith has made you well, go in peace.”
This idea of faith and peace… we, in faith, are to seek peace, and I believe we are to seek it with each other first!
Psalm 35:20 “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”
Is this not our calling as Believers… this peace with each other, is it not a daily pursuit worth all of our efforts? Can we accomplish anything without it?
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