This past weekend, I had the great opportunity to take ten teenagers into the inner-city to volunteer at a couple of shelters serving homeless and/or drug addicted men. The teens (and the adult leaders) completed a variety of tasks, namely cleaning, serving lunch, and making dinner. A good chunk of our time was spent doing rather mundane tasks that would provoke many teenagers to complain incessantly. But, as I talked to the teens and the adults both during the time we were there and afterward, I found that every single person could only speak of how blessed they felt to be there. The feeling of blessing was so strong that many have asked me if we can start doing these kinds of projects more often.
It is interesting to me that the night before we had gone to the Rescue Mission, I had written a draft of a blog entry, wherein I referred to a quote by Jesus speaking of the blessing that we receive when we serve others.[1] This experience demonstrated to me how true this is, and I am thankful that ten teens and four adults (including myself) got to experience this.
The bigger miracle that I see in all of this, however, is that God’s blessing is not a zero- sum situation. Our teens were blessed because they chose to bless someone else. In a more extreme way, Peter and John experienced something similar, when they met the lame man outside the Beautiful Gate.[2] Even though the man sought the ordinary blessing of a small amount of money with which to buy food, Jesus’ disciples were unable to help. Instead, Peter responds more boldly than anyone (even Peter I assume) would have expected: “Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’”[3] Luke tells us that “Jumping up, [the man who had been lame] stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.”[4]
When I read this section of the book of Acts, I envision that the lame man was not the only one jumping for joy and celebrating. I am sure that Peter and John experienced at least as much joy as he did. Not long before, they had watched Jesus suffer and die a humiliating death by crucifixion (so humiliating, in fact, that Peter would not even acknowledge knowing who Jesus was[5]). Then, they saw God’s power resurrect Jesus from the dead. And, then he left them once and for all to be with His father.[6] What an emotional roller coaster that time must have been for them! And then, an ordinary situation presents itself, a poor and lame man begging for change, and Peter, acting almost instinctively on what Jesus had taught Him, offers up the only blessing that he could muster. And, in doing so, Peter and John got the most extraordinary blessing imaginable: proof positive that, although Jesus had left them for good, He continued to perform miracles in their midst. From an ordinary situation, they received and experienced and extraordinary blessing.
(To be continued . . . )
[1] John 13:17
[2] Acts 3:1-11
[3] Acts 3:6 (All Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version unless otherwise noted).
[4] Acts 3:8
[5] See, e.g., Mark 14:66-72
[6] Acts 1:1-9
2 comments:
As you acknowledge, receiving Christ and the Holy Spirit that comes as we place our faith in Christ is hugely important. However, as you point out, there is something definitely lacking in many Christians lives today: maturity. We need to see the fullness of the good news of Christ--not just that we are saved from hell fire but also that we are called to partake of God's act of redemption and grow up into maturity in our knowledge of Him and live like those who have forsaken the world for the sake of Christ as we are discipled by Christ and make disciples of the nations.
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Philippians 3:07-16 (NIV)
7...Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
Thank you for your comment. I believe that Christian maturity is a fruit that naturally grows from faith. Biblically, faith is never a belief disconnected from action (another blog topic I suppose). Rather, it is the motivation to obey God. Granted, we all start in different places, so what may be legitimate growth for me may look like immaturity to someone else. But, I do believe that if we are the good soil that Jesus talked about in the parable of sower and if our faith is real, we will see growth that will culminate, someday, in glorification.
Thanks again for your great comment.
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