Squirrels Don’t Have to Eat Their Crust So Neither Should I

I don’t like the crust on just about anything (thin crust pizza excluded) which has been very surprising for many of my squad mates. I told my friend Alayna one day that squirrels don’t have to eat the top of the acorn which many (probably just me) would consider their crust, so I shouldn’t have to e ither. 

The comment still makes me chuckle but it’s also made me think about how sometimes we say ‘well they don’t do this so why should I.’ It’s been a thought that I’ve had in hard moments on this race, mostly regarding community. “Other Christians don’t live in a deep community and they don’t have to deal with this so why should I.” I didn’t expect community to be one of the hardest aspects of this race. I thought that because we are all pursuing Christ, community will come naturally.  But that’s not necessarily true. While we may be pursuing Christ we still have fleshy moments. Sometimes we respond in ways that aren’t Christ-like. It’s much easier to go to our old sin patterns than it is to act Christ like. We go to gossip, are exclusive, and have passive aggressive behavior, none of which I thought would occur in deep Christian community. The thing we often forget though is that people still have their sin struggles and that doesn’t just go away because they are in Christian community. 

By no means have I been perfect this year. I know I’ve had moments where I was hard to deal with and responded in ways that aren’t Christ like. One of my biggest takeaways this year from living in community was that I can’t control how people act. I can’t control how they treat me or those around them. But I do have a choice on how I respond. Will I choose to be the bigger person? Or will I respond with my flesh? Because one day when I come before the Lord and answer for my deeds, will I get to say I chose gentleness, kindness, and reconciliation when I didn’t have to and when I had a right not to. Or will I say I responded in a way that is what my flesh desired, but not what my God asked of me. I could make the excuse that by human standards I could have responded with anger and bitterness but as all children of God, I answer to a higher standard. I answer to a holy standard where I will give an account of how I responded. Will my response show that I am a child of God or will it look like I’m a child of wrath?

As this year comes to a close, I remember something I prayed for often. I prayed for tough skin, I prayed against the weapons that were formed against me and the words that tried to pierce my skin. I prayed for the poison darts that were thrown at my back to be taken out and not to weigh me down any longer. I know these things weren’t from the Lord, they were people’s free will choices and the devil trying to get me. But praise God because while it doesn’t feel good, He still used it for my good. He used it to draw me closer to Him and to remind me whose I am and how to act Christ like even when I don’t want to. He calls us all to be in deep community. While it might hurt and be hard, just because others aren’t a part of one, doesn’t mean we weren’t called to it. In fact, we are all called to look like the Acts 2 church.

My prayer for whoever is reading this is that despite it being hard, you seek a deep Christian community. We are meant to look like the Acts 2 church. Will people know you are a child of God by the way you love each other?  Or will you look like the world? The Bible tells us people will know we are God’s by the way we love each other. It will be hard but if this year taught me anything, it’s that even though some may say they don’t need it, we are all meant to live in community and point each other towards Christ.