(relax... it's not a maths post)
We're God's Family
We are different in so many ways
Yet God has made us all His children
And He has called us to
Be together as a family
In this Church
We're God's family
In His family
Together we worship and pray
That His love may flow through us
And help each other grow
And as one we'll offer Him our praise
Though there are times we may stumble and fall
We have each other to help us carry on
This song was written by Angie Goh a long time ago if I am not mistaken. (Stef... help me out) It was written in the mid-80s for the church family camps, and for many years it was always the camp theme song. We've not sung it for a while... perhaps it's time to update it's style! (HAHA!!!)
Today, I was reminded of a simple fact of life. God made us all different; and that's so beautiful! But unfortuantely, the world distorts the beauty in this difference and the pressures of the world accentuate those differences and drive people apart. Happens everywhere, but it's especially obvious in a relationship-intense place like church.
But why do I think it's beautiful? Because it just goes to show the amount of hard the work the Maker puts into creating each of us into unique masterpieces. Can you imagine that? God has had to create everyone on this earth with so different personalities and idiosyncrasies that we can all be distinguished from each other. No two people on this earth is exactly the same; at the very least, their fingerprints are different! That's amazing isn't it.
But unfortuantely, many of us don't see it that way. And I know that as a result many of us within church cannot get along with a fellow brother or sister. We just refuse to even get reconciled with each other. Rather than let the differences complement each other in ministry, we have let them drive us apart.
Let me say this, that it is fallacious to think that everyone one in the YM Com has the same opinion all the time. We have had our differences, some very serious differences in fact; as well as our arguments. But we've always let the Lord lead us, and we've respected each other's opinions. One example I can think of is the highly unpopular descision of segregating the genders within the SGs for this year. Only 2 people, myself being one of them, was strongly for this separation. Everyone else leaned in favour of cross-gender SGs. But as the Holy Spirit led us, we knew that we had to take this unpopular line as would be better in the long run. Different opinions, but with God's guidance, we are still a united team.
Same for all of you in the YM. Stop seeing the differences as divisive, but as complementary to the overall experience of life. The reverse process of differentiation is integration; and in the non-mathematical use of that term, it means to put things together. That's the way it should be.
Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another - Proverbs 27:17
Yup, we are called to sharpen each other, to build each other up in the faith, with love. Just the way we use iron to sharpen iron. And when you use iron to sharpen iron, well, sparks fly!
