I guess today's theme is "SUCCESS!" I was struck by a Facebook post I read this morning, and it moved me to create a photo message with an app I am trying to learn. I hope it will print here, somewhere in the post, but if it doesn't you may have to follow this link... try to remember I am learning this process all over again. I use to be able to insert photos anywhere I wanted to. I haven't figured out yet why I can't still do that.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2029386263982873&id=100007345578334
Success seems to translate to "winners and losers" instead of personal goals. In the Body of Christ our only success is in doing our part for the larger group... becoming the part of the Body that GOD makes us to be. All of us will not be the movers and shakers that the world calls "success." Some of us will be the people GOD calls weak, dependent, in need, poor, abused, imprisoned, slaves, hurting, ignorant, alcoholic, and other less desirable situations. In my ponderings with GOD on this topic, I realized that the weak, the needy among us, those who depend on others for their very survival, keep the less tangible attributes of MERCY and COMPASSION alive in our societies... they make us all better people.
I know I have shared this thought before. It was quite a moment for me, like when I realized that FORGIVENESS and CONSEQUENCES are two separate issues.
I don't think I ever heard sermons on these topics. It was the result of a long search with GOD for answers to those big questions we ask about suffering and pain when there is a GOD to believe in.
I could write a lot of things about these issues, but it would go on forever... I don't feel that need right now. It would become a soap box. I just needed to share that our version of "success" is not GOD's definition of success. We must remember that. It changes our entire relationship with each other when we see that WE are a single BODY of CHRIST, not individual Christians who are valued according to our blessings. Somewhere there has to be a meeting place to make sure our needs get filled and our resources don't get abused.
I hope you don't mind my thoughts today. I may be back again later, but I don't know for sure. I am still thinking about this issue, my reactions to other people who have different ideas of success, and the best way to integrate these thoughts into Working Together. As our persecutions increase, the topic of blessings and success and need are going to get more important. How can we make a way to survive as a Body of Christ in the midst of what is coming... I don't know. I'm the poor one. GOD has to move His people to care about each other and prepare what will be needed.
What is success?
Survival may be one definition... but whose survival... one, or many.
Until next time,
In Christ,
Deborah Martin
work2gather.us
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May the Body of Christ become what it was meant to be. Amen.
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