Sweetness in the Messiness

Today I was reminded of Paul Tripp's conference: Your Walk with God is a Community Project. I went to this last July at Covenant Fellowship Church with a friend. And even though I only attended the first session, it was really good. I took out my notes and here are a couple highlights:

"You are always living out of some sense of identity;""God will take you where you do not want to go in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own;""If you want to know the true quality of your relationship with God, look at the quality of your relationship with others;""God calls you to a certain quality of relationships because he means to use those relationships for his purpose."

Even simply checking out the promo video on his site, I was encouraged with the following:

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit - just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call - one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. - Ephesians 4:1-6

When Paul thinks about what it means to live in a way that's worthy of the gospel, the very first thing that comes to mind is relationships. We were not hardwired to live this Christian experience by ourselves.

If you are going to grow and if you are going to be an instrument of growth of others, you have to understand this theology of uncomfortable grace.

I move toward you, not because I trust you. I move toward you knowing that we're both broken and this is potentially messy. I move toward you because I trust the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is hope for us. It's the cross that drives me toward you.

These words speak such helpful truth. I have found them to be true in my own life, and I am faith filled that they will continue to be true in the future, because God's word is truth. God's word is life. Christian fellowship is deeply sweet, through both the happy and messy times.

photo: Grandma & Granddaddy; Grand Canal Venice, Italy 2007