(Ephesians 4:1 ESV) “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”
God has called us to the higher road, a way of living that reflects a sincere belief in another, greater life to come. However, so many things we do are not only locked into time and space, earth, here and now as in the time we spend on earth, but even a battle of the wills at certain moments. Stupid things. We contend with each other over petty nonsense and prove that we have lost our focus on the life that God has promised.
We set the priorities because we don’t listen to God. The worthy walk is set aside for what seems to us to be a better choice for the moment. I remember many years ago a lady ripped the pastor’s wife just before the worship service because of something to do with the purchase of a ham for a funeral that wasn’t done just right. Up one side and then down the other, and then she went out and within moments was singing with the choir — “Let Us Love One Another.”
Total disconnect between the abstract and the concrete reality. She chose winning the moment’s battle over walking worthy. She chose her own feelings and emotions over listening to God and living a life in view of eternity.
Sometimes I wish I had written down more hateful instances of “life in the Church,” and then sometimes I am glad I did not. Maybe I would use them in the wrong way but I certainly wouldn’t run out of material.
