Letdown

It's really hard running into people with a very fixed, one-sided view of things that are very intricate and multi-faceted. Really hard! I can't understand -- if we're feeding off from the same source material and being taught by the same teachers -- why some people still choose to cling to a piece of the pie and insist to everyone else that their piece IS THE WHOLE PIE!

This is probably the reason why the body of Christ is as fractured as it is today: too many people upholding one biblical truth and taking it to the extreme... mowing down other truths AND PEOPLE in their wake.

I once taught about this during one of our services, echoing what I have learned from my pastor (and from other pastors online and off) that there is a danger in going to extremes when it comes to scriptural principles.

The Word of God is so rich, so powerful and so full of many beautiful facets of spiritual life that fit together to make a whole. Human as we are, we have a tendency to pick and choose the Bible truths that we like to uphold (and, in many cases, shove down people's throats); while at the same time we either sideline or completely discard the other godly principles that are just as important.

Why can't we grasp and understand that WE ALL ONLY SEE IN PART;

that even in our "giftedness" as sons and daughters of God WE ONLY PROPHESY IN PART;

that regardless of how much God gives us revelation WE STILL DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW;

that even with all the truths that we have learned and lived out in our lives THE GOAL IS NOT TO TOWER OVER OTHERS AS A PARAGON (which we never are, by the way), BUT THE MISSION IS TO STOOP DOWN to help those who are bowed low in poverty of Kingdom truth AND TEACH THEM (not coerce or intimidate or berate or belittle them);

that just because ONE BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE has been working in our lives over the years DOES NOT MEAN WE HAVE A COMPLETE GRASP OF IT, NOR DOES IT GIVE US THE RIGHT TO BULLY OTHERS INTO DOING THINGS "OUR" WAY;

that the ONE TRUTH WE ARE SO PROTECTIVE ABOUT ("guarding" it with our lives, lest anyone... you know..."remove the potency" of God's Word by presenting another portion of biblical truth) IS ACTUALLY A PART OF ALL THE OTHER THINGS GOD SPEAKS IN THE  BIBLE, and that IT NEEDS TO BE PUT TOGETHER ALONG WITH THE OTHERS SO WE CAN SEE ENTIRE BEAUTY OF THE FULL GOSPEL!

The Word of God is awesome.

IT'S US HUMANS THAT ARE THE LETDOWNS!

- - - - -

We are a beautiful let down, painfully uncool,

The church of the dropouts, the losers, the sinners, the failures and the fools

Oh what a beautiful let down; are we salt in the wound?

Hey, LET US SING ONE TRUE TUNE!

(from The Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot)