Here I am, sitting on the couch, in a cottage in Alaska. An eagle š¦ just flew overhead as I write. A stream meanders along, bubbling through our wooded backyard and the lake is our view out the side window. It has been a cold, late Spring here. Even so, the sun was up and shining at 10pm last night. My son said the lakes were frozen last week. This week the ice gradually melted. We call it ābreakupā.
However as we came to Alaska to visit we heard about a different kind of breakup. It was in the little local church we usually attend. A church split. š¢
Have you ever been through a painful church split?
When the ice in the lakes and streams breakup and the water flowsāthatās a good thing. The salmon can eventually swim up this stream thatās in the above picture, later in the season, because of the flowing water.
Whatās the metaphor for the little church? God so often uses His Creation to give us pictures of His wisdom.
The ice is coldness of hearts. Break up the ice cold hearted bitterness and offense. Talk to Jesus about it. Let the Holy Spirit heal our hearts. Let the Living Water flow and cleanse us. Relational restoration. Not necessarily back to the same church? But they will know we are Christians by our love, even when we are in different buildings.
Wounded and bandaged hearts can still love because there is enough of Godās grace to go around for everyone.
God always can do good things with the messes we make. He makes our messes into messages.
The best example is Jesus. Even though He died on the cross for our sins, God raised Him from the dead. God made tragedy into our blessings of mercy and grace. We always remember thisāit is our Hope in every mess we make in life. It is our Hope for church breakup and every other kind of split. God will make it into something good for His Name sake and for the Kingdom of God. Thatās what He does!
All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
Yes, and I remember when God did that for me. We were part of a little church and because of issues we felt we needed to leave. Our hearts were icy, cold and offended. We went back to a previous church and attended there. (We didnāt know at the time that this actually was Godās best plan for us.) We were hurting and struggling to forgive. Finally, in a worship service, the Lord spoke and said to go back, forgive, and apologize, and make it right. So my husband, on behalf of our family, did the hard work and met with the pastor and elder and apologized. He offered: āIf you would like us to come back, we will return. We want things to be right between us.ā The men responded, āWe want things to be right between us too, but you do not need to return. Just stay where you are.ā And thatās how it ended that year. Fast-forward about two years from thenāwe randomly met the pastor in a little cafĆ©. We were surprised, but we invited him to eat with us. As we ate lunch together, the pastor humbly gave a full apology to us for what had happened. He said it had not been right. We were amazed and praised the Lord and learned this truth of ābreakupā.
What do you think would have happened if we hadnāt broken up our ice-hearts by Godās grace?
Let the Living Water flow!
By Godās grace!
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