It was at said Church, whilst I was trying to focus on what God wanted to say, rather than rating the electric guitarist and the sound quality of the electronic drum kit, that God fed a rather challenging and annoyingly accurate word into my heart……
So Felix, would you like it if those really frustrating people at your new job came to your Church? How would you feel if your Sunday morning space, your private Christian world had invaded by those annoying gossiping colleagues? Would you make them feel welcome?
Would you feel as though two worlds had collided in a mash of your mixed values and principles? Are you too caught up in your ‘Christian-ness’, your Sunday morning feel good session of new fashioned religious repetivness?
Err….. No Lord, I would love them and errrr… ask forgivness for all the moaning I did to my wife and my friends about all of them and and and…..! Needless to say God rinsed me and hung my heart out on the line for some much needed examination :s
Despite my excellently plausable excuses…. I continue to think about this challenge:
Colleagues at Church, what is your heart and what is your prayer?
11:52 am
Hey Felix! Well firstly I need to congratulate you and Emma, I hope you had a fabulous wedding day and that life is treating you both well in Bournemouth! It reminds me of when Rich & I moved to watford and everything…job…house…church..friends etc. were all new. It’s an exciting but challenging time! I like your post because it casts my thoughts to some stuff I’ve been challenged on recently. Often I think it’s very easy to departmentalise our lives and make time for our church friends, and then time for a drink after work…where our colleagues may bug us and we may get drawn into converstaions that we feel highly uncomfortable with. Believe me I’ve been there, and felt like a total hypocrite! I don’t really have any answers but I think we have to ask for God to help change us out of this mindset. Recently an old work colleague of mine asked me if I had taped ‘Charmed’ (an American series about some witches)and I thought yuck…I hate charmed! It isn’t Godly and I would never watch it! And later I thought surely if I was being a stronger witness she’d know that it wasn’t my thing! But no…that was quite depressing. I’m at university at the moment and I get to meet lots of people around my age every day, I know I need to be doing a better job..and being more open about my life…and my love for Jesus…but how? I guess maybe that a sincere love for our colleagues and mates that don’t know God is where we should start. Biting the bullet and inviting them along to our church and making ourselves vulnerable? I’d love to hear the views of others and their failures and successes.