NEW WAYS OF THINKING

Numbers 36:1-Deuteronomy 1:46; Luke 5:29-6:11; Psalm 66:1-20; Proverbs 11:24-26

 ““When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on.”

 ““No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins.

“Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he performs for people!
He made a dry path through the Red Sea, and his people went across on foot. There we rejoiced in him.”

“Give freely and become more wealthy;
be stingy and lose everything. The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.”

One of the hardest things is to learn new ways of thinking. Specifically, it is so tough to really know what another person believes or feels sometimes. We see through our own eyes and assume more commonality than is real. On the other hand, we hide from each other, too. We fear transparency, both because we know our own minds, and because we fear ridicule, or inadequacy. It’s a miracle we can communicate at all, let alone appreciate others’ ideas! I confess to praising God we aren’t clairvoyant. Still, allowing another to truly know what I know, to walk in my shoes, is often the only way I can get my own head around a problem. I need others’ input, and objectivity, like it or not! And when I’m willing to let them in, relationship can go from bad to good in a heartbeat. So much of who we aren’t to others is based on misunderstanding. We don’t have enough solid information to make good choices about relationship, so we hold back instead of moving forward to confront the unknown. Why didn’t God make empathy instinctive? Why we don’t make it easier on each other by sharing ourselves?

Probably because empathy begins with relationship, and every relationship has to begin with a choice to risk connection, and some measure of vulnerability. That this is risky is beyond argument. It’s risk worth taking, though, since without relationship, we have no true friends. Empathy develops only through mutual trust. It blossoms only in unity. Maybe that’s the real message behind today’s Proverb: “Give freely and become more wealthy;
be stingy and lose everything. The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” Maybe Solomon wasn’t talking about money at all. Maybe he was talking about us!

It is quite possible to be overly protective of ourselves, just as with money. In fact, any stinginess or withdrawal may be just a symptom of insecurity at best and selfishness at worst. That’s not to say it cannot be intellectually justified. Sometimes, it’s the only thing that makes any logical sense, particularly when we have no one else to protect us. Here’s the thing: Christians need to remember we are NEVER in the position of the abandoned or the isolated. We will be battered as the world is. But we ultimately are protected by the very God who parted the Red Sea! If He can be that creative, He can certainly save us!

Scripture is almost uncomfortably clear. It is time to move on, away from the doom and gloom and towards the Promised Land. We need to look for the opportunities in adversity. That includes expanding relationships. It includes choosing to stop isolating ourselves and choosing to bear one another’s burdens. We need to stop shutting people out, and start letting people in. Yes, people can betray our trust. But the Holy Spirit also spends a lot of time working through people. It’s a new way of thinking, but maybe the Lord ministers to us and blesses us best when He does so through others. Regardless, He will be our shield, if we allow it. Yes, building the Body of Christ is worth the risk.