Why I Will Never Be A “Lone Ranger”
There are some who use the adage “Just because you to go to church, it doesn’t make you a Christian’ as an excuse to not be in fellowship. Maybe they are stronger than me. Maybe they have some sort of ‘special’ relationship with Jesus that isn’t mentioned in the bible, one that allows them to isolate themselves from the body of Christ because they have their spiritual act together.
I am just not that strong. I need my brothers and sisters in Christ to support me, to pray for me and to challenge me as we grow in faith together, day by day, Sunday by Sunday, year by year. I need to have people in my life to whom I am spiritually accountable, those who know me well enough to lovingly let me know they can see through my ‘words of faith’ and can see that my walk and talk are not in synch.
My brothers and sisters in Christ sometimes rub me ‘the wrong way’ but in reality they rub me ‘the right way’, exposing character flaws and weaknesses that would not be exposed unless I was in face-to-face fellowship. I need to have my brothers and sisters in my life to teach me that it’s not always about ‘me’ and sometimes, I have to ‘wait my turn’ as I serve someone else. I need the genuine joy it is to rejoice when someone else gets the attention.
God gave me arms to reach out and give a comforting hug to real flesh and blood people, he gave me hands to serve others, he gave me eyes to see the faces of those who need me as much as I need them. No, perhaps I am not am some sort of ‘super-saint’ that doesn’t need ‘church’ Don’t get me wrong, Jesus is more than enough but he would have never told us to ‘one-another’ each other if he didn’t think we needed each other as well.
© 2012 Katherine Walden
There is two sides to this: the regualar church goers who abuse the saying, “take your problems to God!” Without praying and helping those in need! They act like you don’t need them and you only need Jesus! They promote the ones who say they don’t need the church! Then those who say they don’t need the church are afraid of rejection and don’t want to forgive the church! We need to stop pointing the finger and stop judging people! Ask people why they hurt so much that they don’t need the church? You’ll get a different answere! We all have unmet needs whether going to church or not! Those who refuse to help in the church are hurting because they were taught to deny themselves so they deny everyone elses pain because they think nobody helped me! I don’t buy into any of this at all! I look for a solution not judge people for saying this because they are hurting that’s why!