Unity Project Week #12
We live in an individualist society in the midst of an individualist age. We want a customized experience, tailored specifically for each of us.
I’ve been thinking about this individualistic mantra in context of Jesus Christ, the church, and our age.
Here are a few thoughts.
1-Jesus Christ performed the most individualistic act of empathy, or as one of my buddies likes to say EM PATH EE!!, in history. The all caps and enunciation to stress that this is a big deal. He went from not being able to relate or “walk in our shoes”, to being bound to the human form for all time. Think about this for a second. Break out of the cliches and that we take this for granted. He became an individual and experienced human hunger, human pain, human betrayal, and more. He was “of heaven”, but in the world. I think of Him now, in His resurrected form, experiencing human longing and human sorrow as He waits to return. This blows my mind. He is a resurrected man (and God) that will return home. Why? Because He has empathy and He cares and He finishes what He starts.
2-“The Church” then is individuals who have chosen to be identified with Him in this empathy. We are given faith, hope and love that is “of heaven” but yet we live here in this world and this age. As we grow in the knowledge of Him perhaps our biggest challenge is to remember that it is ok to be weak, sorrowful, and even betrayed. He was.
We are not expected to be loving or hopeful or faithful in and of ourselves. The fact that we are “The Church” is through Him and the power to live it is through Him. We are called as individuals to help Him finish what He started.
3-Our Age wants this concept of individual blessing and incarnation and power of God to come tap us on the forehead. I think what we miss in this concept, is just how much He respects our individuality and leaves it in our court to choose. We hear corporate or general blessings and we treat it like an infomercial. We say, “Yeah, that’s great and all, but if He was really powerful or really cared, then He would bring that to ME.”
We take the fact that it applies to everyone and somehow think that fact makes it small and not individualized. It’s quite the opposite my friends. This is not a fact that shows his weakness, but rather His immense strength and love and empathy. He literally has an open, individualized door open to EVERYONE! These blessings or offers of love are incredibly personal, BUT it is up to us to choose them as individuals, to ask for His help as individuals. Do we have the courage to ask Him? Or do we feel safer calling him impersonal and small?
If you as an individual put your faith in Him and ask for help. I know He won’t let you down.
Love to you all-Damon
Romans 8:35-39:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
