Co-laboration

Isolation is deadly. Individuals, communities, agencies, nations, et cetera - they all need each other. Life has been designed that way. Coming together is not enough. The strength that results from a strategic coming together is immeasurable, but the results are very powerful. There is no one that can win alone. Everyone brings some strength to the table that all of us are in need of.

We have fire ants where I live. There are several large mounds in my yard right now. It would be a fearful, yet intriguing, thing to see all of them that exist underground. One ant in isolation I can squash. Millions of them working in tandem, they win. In fact, they are winning. Each of them has a role that it plays for the success of the whole. My individual war against their existence only messes with the visible surface while the underground currents seem to be unstoppable. The ants always pop up with a new visible presence.

The thing about ants is that collaboration is in their make-up and seemingly unhindered. It's in our design too. The problem with us humans is that we have opinions and wills that are sinfully rooted in self. Self preservation does not naturally lead to collaboration. "What's in it for me" somehow does not nurture effective togetherness.

What if we uprooted our drive for self preservation and aggrandizement, and conversely nurtured new growth in the soils of life-restoring co-laboration? What kind of shape would life begin to take?

I think I will dwell on this path for a while....

Blessed Are The Pure...In Motivation

One of my biggest and most recent struggles for my personal life and my work with churches is motivation. Not the problem of getting going, though the closer I get to 50 the more that is a factor. The motivation factor that churns my deepest being is the answer to a toddler's favorite question - "Why?". Something happened to me at 40. Okay, a lot of things happened to me at 40! Anyway, I started asking that toddler's "Why?" about everything.

On a personal level it has caused me to stop feeling guilty about some things - namely heavy baggage from growing up in the church. But, it also includes things like, "Why am I washing laundry and serving my wife her coffee in the morning?" and "Why do I have certain expectations for my children?".

As I work with churches I ask why a lot; probably ad nauseam. It doesn't matter how cutting edged they think they are, motivation is an extremely valid concern. Where most churches want to start - "How can we grow our church?" This question goes to a church's motivation for reaching people. For whose good? Is life-restoration your greatest passion, or is growing your church your greatest passion? It matters.

"Why?" is a fun question when you are asking it of someone else. I long for my motivation to be pure in all things, no matter how hard the change may be. I wonder why?

For the Love of...Pigs?

Matthew 8:28-34

In this story of two demon-possessed men, a disturbing scenario arises regarding Jesus’ redemptive presence. Upon Jesus’ arrival the two men surface from some tombs and recognize Jesus immediately as “Son of God.” The demons not only knew who Jesus was, but they knew their future with Him and feared him.

After Jesus sends the demons to the herd of pigs nearby, the pigs ran to the lake where they drowned. The response of the people was to run to town and tell what had happened. As the townspeople arrived, they saw Jesus and pleaded with Him to leave, so He did. Verse one of chapter nine tells us that Jesus got in a boat and went to the other side; He removed His presence from them. Why? Because they did not recognize him for who He was. Strikingly, the demons honored Jesus more than the people did. The demons saw His authority as Son of God and responded to him in obedience. The people saw Him at work and responded with rejection.

What or whom do you love more than Jesus? Are there times when you wish that Jesus would go away and leave you alone? Could it be said that the demons recognize and respond to Jesus better than you?

“Father, help me to know when Jesus is present and active so that I do not reject His activity, even when that activity is devastating to what I believe to be of greater value. Help me to see the insanity of valuing the ‘pigs’ in my life over the redemptive presence of Jesus.”

© Chuck Coward 2008