‘I won’t be going to church anymore!’ Sounds familiar? Reality is, for once in our Christian walk, we might have thought of leaving the church. We have different reasons for having that thought, some due to burnout and most are due to an offense. But regardless of your reasons, this analogy posted by one pastor will surely blow your mind away!
Pastor Andy Harris of The Church of the Cross in Haughton, Louisiana, shared a story of a woman who decided to stop going to church because of the wrong things that she noticed in the life of her fellow church members. The woman said in the church she saw, “…woman gossipping about another member; a man that is a hypocrite; the worship team living wrong; people looking at their phone during service…” Familiar?
But the pastor responded in a very unexpected way. He requested the woman to “…take a full glass of water and walk around the church three times without spilling a drop on the ground.” The woman did so. And indeed, she walked around the church 3 times without even spilling a drop of water from the glass.
Afterward, the pastor asked her for the last time if she saw those people who made her come up with the decision of leaving the church. And she responded ‘no’. Then the pastor shared something that blew the mind not just of this woman but of everyone who heard this analogy, believers or not.
“You were focused on the glass, to make sure you didn’t stumble and spill any water. It’s the same with our life. When we keep our eyes on Jesus, we don’t have time to see the mistakes of others. We will reach out a helping hand to them and concentrate on our walk with the Lord.”
It wasn’t confirmed whether that story happened in real life or not, but for sure this story speaks to everyone who thought of ‘I won’t be going to church anymore!’
Pastor Andy reminds us to keep our eyes on Jesus. We oftentimes are too focused with the people around us, even with the congregation that we are into, to the point that we forgot the reason of why we have those people in our lives and why we are in that church in the first place. The church is a place for broken people. We all have issues and we are all sinners. But let us be reminded that we are also people saved by grace. The same grace that we have experienced is also the same grace that we should extend, not just to unbelievers but most importantly to those people who are with you in the church.
As believers, let us continue to fix our eyes on Jesus!
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”—Hebrews 12:1-2a
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fa7528400%2Fposts%2F10154521556165583&width=500&height=715