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By Dr. Jim Morford
Last Updated: July 27, 2010
In writing to a young group of believers, the Apostle Paul wrote these words: “continue to live your lives in Christ, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."
This passage strikes me in a way that reminds me that living “in Christ", being “rooted and built up" in Christ, is not nearly as easy as it initially seems to be, or is it? Whether it is peer pressure, family genetics (generations of alcohol abuse, for example), societal expectations or visions of success, financial independence, or a leisurely retirement, we all have things which distract us from living our lives in Christ.
I want to suggest to you today that a life centered in Christ is a life at peace with itself, because all of the peer pressures are seen as, and dealt with, as distracters to a life at peace with God, ones self, and others. I find this challenge personally difficult from Paul's thinking, because it is just plain contrary to conventional thinking and wisdom in our society, even in our own area. Success in our field of work, whether farming, banking, business leader, front line worker, teaching or as a nurse, is clearly defined by society, and those criteria determine so much, even including our self-esteem.
A few months ago I had a hit on my Facebook page. The lady began by asking if I was a teacher at a junior high school in Kansas City in 1970. I remembered her, and responded to her inquiry and told her yes, I was her math teacher in the Shawnee Mission School District in 1970. She told of having searched the country for years to find me, with no success until now, because she wanted to thank me for touching her life in a special way. It was that summer when her only sibling, a brother, sadly died of a form of cancer of the blood. As a gesture of compassion, I sent a sympathy card to her, not her family, and expressed sadness for the loneliness I knew she had to be going through.
She wasn't thanking me for my math teaching skills, she was thanking me for caring, because my card was the only card that was addressed only to her, and she cried thinking that a math teacher would care enough to send a sympathy card and note just to her. Today, in her 50s, she and her husband live in the Southeast and they have a son in Iraq, but all these years on her mind was the desire to say thank you for a simple gesture that touched her life.
It's not the first such note I've had along this line in recent months, but it is but another reminder to me that a life centered in Christ is not bound by our vocation, rather every opportunity we have in life is a chance to touch lives, just as Jesus touched lives. To share grace, to show compassion, to grant mercy, to encourage, to forgive, to bring hope, to provide comfort, these are rarely in job descriptions, nor are they often definitions of success in a vocation or on the financial bottom line. BUT, they will bring peace to your life when you live the Faith, for living the faith is both our opportunity and challenge.
This coming week, find someone who needs that special touch, and let yourself be a vessel through which God shows forth His mighty love. Live your life in Christ by touching the life of another with grace or compassion or mercy or encouragement or forgiveness or hope or comfort or and you will experience God's peace!
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