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Cutting Problems in Half

Coming clean, being open and honest—this was our focus in a recent Bible study (centered on Psalm 51). At some point in our discussion, a friend shared this bit of wisdom, a pithy adage from Alcoholics Anonymous: “Telling someone cuts it in half.” Be it a challenge, irritation, or temptation, just telling someone about it significantly reduces the size of our problem. Articulating our burden clarifies heretofore nebulous feelings, and confession aligns us with the truth of the matter, a vital step on the path to victory. Moreover, “telling someone” removes the added weight of a load carried silently alone. Though none of the rest of us were in AA, we all “got it,” for overwhelming challenges are part of the human experience, and we need help.

Solomon observed, “Two are better than one . . . For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”1 The king’s wisdom is worth pondering, yet it is actionable, as well, and Paul calls us to it. “Bear one another’s burdens,” he exhorted, “and so fulfill the law of Christ,”2 which is to say, love practically and give sacrificially—something Jesus lived out to the ultimate. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends,”3 He told His disciples, and less than 24 hours later, Jesus did exactly that: He laid down His unblemished life to take upon Himself the otherwise irradicable burden of our sin. May we never balk at mere inconvenience again.

My friend described alcoholism as “above all else, a disease of isolation,” yet insobriety is not its only affliction—whether as a root or a symptom, isolation affects us in ways too many to mention in this space. This is not the way we are called to live, rather as Paul wrote, “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”4 Adds Solomon, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”5 So let us live into our oneness in Christ—a place where burdens are shared, loads are lightened, and Christ is glorified.

There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.—Proverbs 18:24

Father, it is easy to regard other people’s struggles from a distance, and it is easy to distance ourselves from others. Forgive us. Lead us in unity and wisdom, that we would live and love as one in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.

1 Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
2 Galatians 6:2
3 John 15:13
4 Romans 12:5
5 Proverbs 17:17 NIV

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Out of Many, One

Tomorrow night, forty-five men will begin to prepare for a Kairos Prison Ministry Weekend at Marion Correctional Institution (MCI). We will meet for several hours on eight consecutive Thursday nights to learn from each other, understand our individually assigned roles, tend to logistics, pray and worship together, and to draw near to each other in the Spirit. Along the way, there will grow a shared singularity of purpose among us and a mutual trust, and on the last weekend of October, we will enter the prison—forty-five individuals, united. It is but one manifestation of God’s grace in Christ Jesus, and a microcosm of His church on Earth: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people . . .”1 In Christ, believers are the “E Pluribus Unum” of His Kingdom—out of many, we are one.

To the church in Rome, Paul taught, “As in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”2 So it is that, on the Kairos Weekend, table servants will minister attentively, filling empty coffee cups and replenishing cookie trays, while others toil in the kitchen unnoticed. Some will give talks and share relatable testimonies, after which others will engage in participant discussions. Our timekeeper will quietly keep things moving as close to schedule as the environment allows, while our coordinator liaises with the administration as needed. And the musicians will lead us to the throne of God in worship and praise.

Over the years, I have intently listened to many MCI residents as they witnessed to the personal impact of their Kairos Weekend. Conspicuously absent from their individual testimonies is this: the tendency to credit any single Kairos volunteer for their powerful weekend experience. A given speaker may have said something especially resonating, perhaps, and maybe a one-on-one conversation was particularly helpful. But what the participants see is the body of Christ, led by Christ, deeply bonded and acting as one—grown up “to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”3 Out of many, we are one. So prayerfully seek to unite with others in ministry, for together in Christ we will do and see great things. It’s awesome!

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”—1 Corinthians 12:27

Father, You do wonderous things through us, Your people, the body of Christ. Inspire us to live and serve as one, each of us doing as we are called and gifted to do. The glory will be Yours. In Christ, we pray. Amen.

1 Peter 2:10
2 Romans 12:4-5
3 Ephesians 4:15-16 NIV

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We Would Do Greater Things

A few times when our son Matthew was a boy, I made it a point to teach him the wonder of others-mindedness. I would draw 10 stick figures (the extent of my artistic skill) and then ask him, “If each one of these people thinks only of himself or herself, how many are thinking of each person?” Pausing briefly to understand the question, he would respond, “One.” Correct! Then I’d change the question: “If each one thinks only of the others, then how many are thinking about each one?” “Ten,” he’d reply. Well, nine actually, but you get the point. “Which is better?” I’d ask. The answer was obvious.

There is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian. In Kingdom math, one is none. “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.”1 But in Christ, God has built us into something much greater than alone: “Now you [plural] are the body of Christ,” wrote Paul to the Corinthians, “and each one [singular] of you is a part of it.”2 To believers in Rome, he repeated, “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”3 The apostle yearned that believers’ “hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love.”4 In Kingdom math, many equals one.

We do greater things as a body united. We stand not apart from each other in individual weakness, but shoulder to shoulder with each other, united in Christ for the glory of His Kingdom and against our common enemy, “the cosmic powers [of] darkness . . . the spiritual forces of evil.”5 As we assume our individual Kingdom roles—our respective functions, gifts, and callings—under the lordship of Christ, His will is done and His church advances. People are saved and helped; moreover, His entire body is strengthened and encouraged, for it is awesome to see how God works through our brothers, our sisters, and, yes, even ourselves.

Solomon once observed: “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.”6 So let us live greater—united as one with each other and looking out for the needs of all. If stick figures can do it, we can too.

Father, Your ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours. Open us to Your Spirit, that He would do greater things in and through us, the living, breathing, united body of Christ, in Whose name we pray. Amen.

1 Ecclesiastes 4:12 NLT
2 1 Corinthians 12:27
3 Romans 12:5
4 Colossians 2:2
5 Ephesians 6:12
6 Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NLT