Directions

Chip Carter, MA, LPC 

I wish I had the boldness of Jesus in so many ways.  Here are just a few…
 
-How He called a spade a spade, or more accurately, a Pharisee a Pharisee when He observed their legalism time and time again.
-How He knew when to rest, even amidst the storms
-How He met people where they were - ravaged, hurting, embarrassed, desperate - and sent them off with a completely different perspective and belief system
-How He asked others to come along on His journey, even though He had all the power in the world and could commune with God whenever He wanted
 
Jesus knew people, knew how they operated inside and out, and still – STILL – asked twelve to join Him on His mission.  Surely, He did this to teach and model what God wants and desires for His children.  Absolutely, He knew what was coming three years down the road and needed to have them in place to carry out his mission long after He was gone.  But, I believe, He did this also because He was a human being, He didn’t want to be alone while His mission unfolded, and knew that having community in his life would bless Him in ways that spoke to His soul. 
 
Jesus sought community.  Thus, community must be a good thing.
 
Not so fast you might say.  In Jesus’s gang of twelve, one betrayed Him in such a huge way it was a crucial step that led to his death.  Knowing this, what did Jesus do? 
 
He washed his feet.
 
Another publicly professed he would never deny Jesus, that he was His most ardent follower and then denied Jesus not once or twice, but three separate times.  In turn, what did Jesus do?
 
He called him a ‘rock’ and stated this future thing He labeled ‘the church’ would be built on him.
 
Absolutely crazy.
 
Have you ever been at your doctor’s office and they bring out that instrument that looks like a hammer to test your reflexes? And then the doctor bangs your knee and it automatically springs up. That’s what they're looking for – that your reflexes are sharp; that they’re working; that they’re doing what they were made to do.
 
Jesus had the best ‘reflexes’; always sharp, always working, always moving towards God’s redemptive plan. He served where I would have been really angry and scared. He encouraged and empowered where I would have scolded and brooded. 
 
Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9 are familiar verses to many of us – ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways…for as the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.  And my thoughts than your thoughts.’
 
And, if you’ll allow me a little room here… ’For my reflexes are not your reflexes.’
 
But here’s the ticket: He wants us to be more like Him.  He wants our ways, our thoughts, our reflexes to be like more like His. He wants us to serve when instead we want to say ‘Get out!’ He wants us to encourage and validate when we would rather point fingers and be hurt. What blows my mind and heart though is He did these things within His community, a community of his choosing. He would not have had these examples if He had not brought others on his journey. 
 
The truth is this: people are going to hurt us, especially those we know well. The truth is also this, many of us (hand raised here for sure) have shied away from community because the hurts have hit us hard. But now, when I look back at times when I’ve been hesitant about allowing people in, I look at it from the lens of whether my reflexes were sharp or dull. The hammer is going to hit us eventually; let our reflexes be more like His.