We want something that will call us to pull up our boot straps and get with it so that once we do so we might boast of how we dug deep down into our own personal reserves and willed ourselves to healing and deliverance.
There are teachings designed to get us on track again by calling us to live according to purpose, it all sounds magnificent because it tells us we need a purpose larger than ourselves and it stirs us inside and as would any motivational work it moves into temporary action.
We all fall prey to these well intentioned teachings and devices unleashed on the church. It seems the church is forever missing the forest for the trees.
A young father and his son who lived in New York regularly jogged together through the city early in the morning. Their normal course took them by a statue of General William Tecumseh Sherman seated on a horse. One of their regular rituals was to pause at the foot of familiar old Sherman before resuming their run. Then the father took a job on the west coast and the day came for their last jog and their last rest at the foot of the famous Civil War General. The father pointed out the significance of this last stop before Sherman. The next day they would be gone. “Take one good long last look at old Sherman,” he said to his son. Then, as they stood and were about to resume their run the boy said, “By the way, Dad, who is that fellow sitting on the back of Old Sherman?”
That is what the Holy Spirit through Paul is dealing with when it comes to trying to get the church to see and understand what is most important to them.
We pause beneath the cross on our daily run as it has become our habit and we lose sight of what is important. We are inclined to ask who is that fellow on that cross.
We would rather worship the cross than one who hung on it. We think it is all about the cross.
Yes, Paul spoke adoringly regarding the cross but it was not because of the cross itself but rather the one who hung from it.
What we just read in Colossians did not say, “cross in you the hope of glory.” I distinctly recall it saying Christ in you!
