Let's not divide

Check out this video.

We live in a very angsty world don’t we? There seems to be a number of issues (e.g. masks, vaccinations, etc.) before us that can seemingly instantly raise our blood pressure. So how do we navigate these sensitive issues before us? We often feel like we are “right” on our positions. And sometimes we feel like we have to “help” others know we are right and why we are. And maybe under the surface there is the thought that they are, well, “idiots” for having a different position. Oy vey! We need the Lord, don’t we?
 
We want to think Biblically. We want to have the mind of Christ when it comes to issues that can divide us, issues that are grey. It is easy to get frustrated, easy to be misjudged… and it’s easy to misjudge others too.
 
I want us to be known as people who love one another, who genuinely care for others in word and actions. One specific way we can do that is by moving toward one another. When we have conversations with others over issues that can be divisive, we want to move toward them – that means we want to know how they see it, and I have found an important part to this is how it affects them. Each of our decisions affects us in some way. Each of us, for example, are affected by whether we get vaccinated or not. Let’s get to the heart, let’s care for one another.
 
Finally, I thought I would share how Martin Luther dealt with the plague that ravaged his city. It is how I have tried to navigate these murky waters:
 
“Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.”
 
I pray you are encouraged and challenged to how we think on divisive issues in our world today. I pray too that we are driven closer to the cross. That what binds us is not a political position but truly, it’d be Jesus. We have a God who reigns over all of these issues, and has us here now to live as Christ-followers. May we lovingly walk with Jesus and one another.
 
I love you church! We get to walk this road together.

FYI: I refer in the video to this blog as a helpful tool to thinking on these issues.

In His Grip,
Pastor John