Oh, I get it now. I think? Maybe?
I was working on the blog late tonight and it just hit me. I wasn’t even supposed to be writing about Core Value #2 this evening but I can’t stop myself.
Maybe church hurt is the worse hurt because the place where you found salvation, rededication, freedom, whatever, is the same place that also turned in an instant against you?
It’s like an irreconcilable difference. It causes a kind of cognitive dissonance so vast many people never recover completely.
The person who once loved you the most now can’t stand the sight of you so you divorce. The person you once wanted to spend all your time with no longer has time for you. The arms you once felt safest in are now the arms that push you away.
Admittedly that’s not my story but I do know it is some people’s journey. And there seems to be very little Biblical testimony on how difficult these kinds of rifts can be— David and Saul; Paul and Barnabas (that’s all I can find).
But beyond personal anecdote and a few Biblical examples there’s not a ton to tell us exactly why church hurt hurts so bad. But I want to put a few pieces of scripture together to try and take a stab at the answer so that we can all be motivated to just DO BETTER!
There’s something ghastly wrong about a person who cuts their own arm off. Literally, that’s only appropriate in rare instances like you’re snowed in at a yurt on Mt. Everest or whatever happened to that man. You know which movie I’m talking about…
In normal settings, anyone who is self mutilating would be in need of sincere and serious mental health treatment. We would not hesitate to recommend that that friend gets some help.
But what if I said that person is Jesus?
You’d say, “Blasphemy!” And trust me, I’m really trying to tread lightly here, but this thing is SERIOUS.
Why is it okay or swept under the rug when Jesus’ body self harms but we write love on the arms of humans who do so (as we rightfully should do)? Why are we in a bigger hurry to rescue human bodies from self harm than we are to rescue Jesus’ body from self harm? Something is SERIOUSLY WRONG that!
If I am connected to you and you are connected to me then I need to have the utmost reverence and respect for how I relate to you. A mis-step, a mis-communication could be potentially dire and while we can’t entirely prevent such events, simple awareness of the depth of our interconnectivity can go far—