Just when I thought I was making some progress in my journey, I get slammed by something that not only “takes the wind out of my sails,” but threatens to undo me emotionally. It’s a movement by someone in my life that I know loves me and wants the very best for me . . . But it’s so far off the mark (at least to my way of thinking), I can’t hardly comprehend it.
The tendency is to want to debate; to prove my point and bludgeon theirs; to demonstrate how right I am and how wrong they are. But that isn’t the “Jesus Way,” is it? In his second letter to Timothy, Paul enjoins Timothy to “Join with me in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer” (2 Tim 2:4-5). I have to keep reminding myself that I am a citizen of a different kingdom; I’m but a sojourner — an alien here and the concerns of this world are to take a distant second place to the concerns of my Commanding Officer — King Jesus. And I’m to continue loving in spite of events like these.
King Jesus is far more concerned about the spiritual welfare of the ones He’s placed within my sphere of influence. The war we fight is a celestial one; Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians (in Chapter 10) is that (NIV) 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” The enemy of our souls definitely has strongholds in this world and they manifest everywhere — in the Church — and outside the Church. They are the “civilian affairs” Paul talked about to Timothy, and within which he was not to be entangled.
I’m not taking the bait and I’m not getting entangled!