The journey isn't easy. It's not one you can take alone. Alone you fall and have no one to help you up - no one to encourage you to step out when you're scared, when you've failed so many times before. For this reason, the scriptures say, "Two are better than one".
Interestingly enough this is not easy to find. It's not easy to find people who are willing to be completely honest about where they are, and it's not easy to find people who will be the other who will listen, keep you accountable and say - this is who I am and where I'm at.
Over the years I've found that most of us are looking for this. A place, people with whom we could let it all down and truly be accepted, while being encouraged onward to victory. But something often holds us back, "Fear". Fear that if I open up my life - I won't be accepted. Fear that I'll be judged. Fear that all this love talk is just that - lots of talk.
Jesus painted a picture, spoke of, and showed us a Kingdom where this wasn't just talk - so why is it so hard to find? I'm a sinner! I'm a man whose heart longs to please God but that when left to myself alone, I struggle and fall. That doesn't surprise me though, the Scriptures say that we are to confess our sins to one another, why, because God knows that alone we're easy targets for sin, our flesh, Satan and his powers. As one of my best friends use to put it..."Alone it's easy to cheat on God."
We've built a faith philosophy that is based on just "Jesus and Me." An individualistic faith. But Jesus pointed us to a Kingdom where we would need others in order to live out the calling we have received as his followers.
I can't do it alone! Alone I stumble and fall all over the place. For years I've tried to make sure there's people in my life who know it all - my temptations, my falls - and better who challenge me and encourage me so that as I grow experience victory in Christ! I haven't always succeeded. Most people don't really want to deal with the fact that their pastor struggles and falls. It's ok to talk about it, say it generally, be vulnerable - but don't get specific...
I've felt somewhat alone in this area for some time- last week I called up an old friend. Someone who I knew wouldn't be scared off by my call - we spent an afternoon together and covenanted to being there for each other - to challenging and asking the tough questions of each other. You don't know you miss something until you go without it for a while...
It's nice knowing that there's someone out there who's not afraid to be real and who I can be completely real with, who's praying, who's really being what Jesus said we should be to one another. I feel priviliged!
I wish this happed more often in the church.
Posted by ed | TrackBackIt's great that you have a real, true friend that you can share your struggles with and from whom you find encouragement. I, too, have been longing for the same relationship for quite some time now. You're absolutely right. We have isolated ourselves and made our walk with the Lord a private matter. Why can't we find more people who are willing to be real?
Posted by: NikiI don't usually like to boil stuff down to one thing, but I really think it's fear. Satan wants to hold us captive by the things that we've done and so we're not real. Some of that fear is real because we might have tried to be real before and it just blew up in our faces, or maybe we've seen someone else try it to their doom. But at the end of the day, it comes down to us making a decision, I'm going to find someone and I'm going to be real...not easy or quick, but once it happens, you find people going..."you too?" Wow...
Posted by: edA true freind is a real treasure...a gift from God. I hope we will continue to "sharpen" each other. Be the man you are...a real one...Love you man
Posted by: your friendBeen through much together - we know and have seen each other at our best and worst. Look forward to the future