The Bungee Cord

Hello,

What do the following people have in common?

The unrepentant person.

The lazy person.

The ungrateful person.

The prideful person.

The manipulative person.

The answer: people who Christians are not meant to help…..at least according to a person who posts “reels” on Facebook.

The first time I watched and listened to this post, I thought it must have been a joke. Surely the young man who was confidently putting his perspective of the Christian life must be trying to see how many people he could get riled up over something that makes no sense. After all, if I were to answer what all the aforementioned people have in common, my answer would be that those characteristics are common to everyone, including the one who was posting them on-line.

After all, who among us is not guilty of unrepentance and keeps on doing the thing that brings pain to the world? How much sleep have you or I lost over the children throughout the world who are starving, while we worry about weight control?

Who among us can say we are free of laziness? Just consider all of the things that we buy to make our lives easier, or how much our time is consumed on ourselves that we don’t have the energy to reach out to others, or even reach out to God in Sunday morning worship?

Who among us can say that we live life in total gratitude? Think of how the commercials that bombard our eyes work on our sense of what we “need” in life, making us people full of “grabitude” (my word) instead of gratitude.

Who among us can say that we are free of an inflated ego? When one listens to the conversations that often take place in living rooms and church parlors, people hold onto their opinions with eagle-like talons, pridefully convinced that they are right.

Who among us doesn’t engage in manipulation? We all know what buttons to press on those around us. The world teaches us well how to get our way, and there are books and conferences that instruct us how to manipulate others for our advantage.

If the young man on the reel is speaking the truth, then it seems to me that we, as Christians, and thereby God, himself, need help no one.

It may be true that these supposedly precluding characteristics may be more obvious in some people than others, but when it comes to such characteristics, I don’t believe that degree really matters, it is kind of like “being a little pregnant”.

As I listened to this reel several times, it became clear to me that this young man was not joking around. I felt myself wanting to tell him that it would do him well to look into a mirror rather than a camera lens. It is true that he justified his position with Biblical passages, but as it is with Biblical justification, sinful eyes can find words to justify their beliefs as they read the Bible.

I find myself driven to write this Bungee Cord to tell you that I do not believe that there is any reason not to help someone, or to believe that God would impose any reason to not help you. Jesus came to save sinners….each and every one of them. Jesus did not measure the amount of sin in a person’s life; Jesus came to rid all sin from a person’s life. Jesus came to put his name on each person and erase the name of the sin that had staked their claim on them. There is no person that Jesus is not meant to help, and likewise, then, there is no person that we are not meant to help.

Rather than cancel some people out of God’s loving grace, we might begin out efforts to help all people by praying for them, opening our hearts to them, and seeking how we might best help them. Obviously, help requires wisdom. So, know this, no matter who you are, you are someone to whom Jesus reaches out his hand in love, and therefore one to whom the body of Christ, the church, extends a hand. And for those of us who bear Christ’s name, Christian, the best way to assure us of our part in helping others might just be to look in a mirror.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

See less

Shared post