Root System

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.  Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.   Hebrews 10:23 - 25 (NLT)

Have you ever wondered why God chose to make the church necessary?  Why gather often, especially with people that can sometimes be irritable, and even unkind?  After all, there are times when it really is like Noah’s ark – salvation to be sure – but smelly and a bit of a problem.  Have you considered the fact that there were porcupines on that small, crowded boat? 

There is a very good reason God chose “church”, calling-out millions of people through the centuries to be one body.  

Popular Christian author and pastor, Max Lucado, wrote:

Questions can make hermits out of us, driving us into hiding.  Yet the cave has no answers.  Christ distributes courage through community; he dissipates doubts through fellowship.  He never deposits all knowledge in one person but distributes pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to many.  When you interlock your understanding with mine, and we share our discoveries, when we mix, mingle, confess and pray, Christ speaks."[1]

The cave has no answers!  This is the reason I choose the church.  I’m a hermit by nature – an introverted loner who chooses the risky company of God’s ark!  Go figure!

In the church-ark you find all kinds of people:

·        Sweet-spirited lambs and treacherous wolves

·        Spiritual schizophrenics and those who are simply faithful

·        Sporadic relatives and surprising strangers

It’s definitely a strange and mixed bag, we, the church!

What’s the point?

The point is that over the years I’ve met just about all of them (er…us)!  And, for the most part, I still choose the church over “no-church”.

Here’s why:

The questions I hear from without the church are cave questions – no valid answers.  They’ve got no basis – no genuine root system that is attached to anything but the nothingness of empty hope. 

The questions I hear from within the church are faith questions – struggle, doubt, fear, anger, and crushed at times – but questions with faith in God who never lets you down!

With all its bugaboos, bruhaha’s, blunders and occasional brutality, this messy ark is my home, my family, friends and safety. 

You are my root system. 

It is Christ in you, and me, which keeps me standing when, without Christ and you, I would have given in to life’s craziness long ago. 

How could I ever leave that? 

Today I’m singing a song

Annie Murray’s song “You Needed Me” could very easily be about me and the way I have been loved by God’s church, and the God of that church.  

It’s my song today:

I cried a tear, you wiped it dry
I was confused, you cleared my mind
I sold my soul, you bought it back for me
And held me up and gave me dignity
Somehow you needed me

You gave me strength to stand alone again
To face the world out on my own again
You put me high upon a pedestal
So high that I could almost see eternity
You needed me, you needed me

And I can't believe it's you
I can't believe it's true
I needed you and you were there

And I'll never leave, why should I leave?
I'd be a fool 'cause I finally found someone who really cares

You held my hand when it was cold
When I was lost you took me home
You gave me hope when I was at the end
And turned my lies back into truth again
You even called me "friend"

You gave me strength to stand alone again
To face the world out on my own again
You put me high upon a pedestal
So high that I could almost see eternity
You needed me, you needed me

Alone, I couldn’t sing a note on key.  But this is sweet music – God loves and needs us.  And we are roots together in His vineyard!

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[1] Lucado, Max, Imagine Your Life Without Fear, Thomas Nelson, 2009