Chain Letters

Have you seen them? I'm sure if you have an email account you have. Those ubiquitous chain letters. You know what I'm talking about...the ones that say, "If you love Jesus, send this to everyone you know in 5 minutes and great things will happen for you! If you don't send it you are ashamed of Him! Where do you stand? Where do I stand? Well, I sent this on, didn't I? And by the way, send it back to me too!"

Some of those emails do make me think, until I get to the part about sending them to whatever the number of friends happens to be and then I just push the delete button! But then of course there is always that little niggle of doubt at the back of my mind, asking me, "Don't you love the Lord?" Then that part of my brain that is not ruled by guilt and self-doubt kicks in and I delete the dumb thing anyway.

So if I delete the email, does it mean that I am not a Christian? I have thought a lot about this question. When I see someone who has that little bracelet (WWJD), when I see someone with the little fish symbol on the back of their car, when I see that tattoo with the bible verse on it, I think about these things. Are those things inherently wrong? No, I don't think so but it is a lot easier to do those things than it is to live out the things that Jesus has asked us to do in the Gospel. "If you do not forgive your brothers on earth, my Father in heaven will not forgive you." Well, I don't know about you but in my sinful nature, I would a whole lot rather wear a WWJD bracelet than admit that I refuse to forgive someone. What, me wrong?! You mean that I am a sinner and need to repent?! My holier than thou attitude is WRONG?! But wait, I have a little tattoo that says, "(insert your bible verse here)".

I have seen this played out in my life at work A LOT during the course of the past couple of years. People who attend church on a regular basis, proclaim this Christianity and regularly send me these emails have made a practice of complaining about the administration we have there. I have been guilty of complaining about some of the decisions made as well. I have to admit that I was not a happy camper when I had to move 2 libraries into one room in half of a modular. I was not happy about purging a collection it had taken years to build so that it would fit. But now through the grace of God, I see that these decisions were for the good of the whole school community (we needed the classroom space for core curriculum, they moved me into the modular that was the newest and in the best shape, and because of the budget problems we are encountering now!) Where was my faith when I was first told about the move? All along God used those decisions for the good of my family especially (I got paid to move the libraries and reshelve the books and I got a big salary increase). It is easy to go to church every Sunday compared to submitting to God when I think I know better. But that is how God brings us to maturity (perfection), by sending those trials. I have peace at work now because I trust in Him more than I did before.

It would have been easier for my pastor to forward a bunch of meaningless emails than to forgive those who so despitefully used him in the past several years. But through my loving and faithful savior, my pastor kept preaching loving kindness, patience, long suffering and forgiveness. God used all of that in my life to root out a sin I had been holding onto for far too long. I FINALLY wrote my sister a letter and asked her to forgive me for my proud and haughty spirit. I didn't want to do it very badly. But God, through that faithful example and the faithful preaching of the Word, just kept convicting my heart about my own stubbornness in the area of forgiveness. I got a letter from my sister yesterday. She FORGAVE me and expressed her thankfulness and love for me. My heart is full of thankfulness to God that He, in His infinite love and mercy, softened my heart instead of hardening it. That He caused my sister to forgive me instead of (as I deserved) deciding to punish me.

So, if you send me one of those emails, just know that I will probably delete it. I read them first but you won't be getting it back. Yes, it is hard to live life on the basis of doing what Jesus has asked me to do but the reward is infinitely more than that small feeling of satisfaction of pushing the forward button.

Till next time...