Hey, Don’t Work So Hard

This past weekend I attended my nephew’s wedding. It was so wonderful and special.

I had met my nephew’s now wife while they were engaged but not any of her family. But at the wedding it was like we had always been friends and kin. There were no awkward pauses in conversation. There was no wondering about common things to talk about. I was hugged by everyone and welcomed in unconditionally to the new part of the family. Now, of course, we were all on our best behavior. It was a wedding, after all.

But since by far most of the guests were professing living like it Christians, I attribute the family feel to the fact that we all have the same Father. We didn't have to work at making this work for the happy couple. We just had encouragement for each other. We had Godly love for each other. We had common joy. We shared the celebration equally.

It reminded me of how the fellowship of the church is supposed to be and sometimes is not. It reminded me of theses verses: 

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2:1-5

I realized that Christians have to work at not getting along. We all have the same Spirit in us. We have the same Spirit given love. We have the same purpose and goal to be more like Christ. We have the same command to bring others to knowing our Lord. So if we can’t make our relationships Godly we have put some work into it.

 We have purposely not forgiven and held on to attitudes until we are bitter. We have purposefully let pride and power make us feel that we want to be more important than others. We have put some work into keeping our sinful feelings and letting our personal interests and hurts get in the way of natural believers fellowship. We work so hard to let the hurter know that they are unforgiven and the fault will never be forgotten.

That’s a lot of unnecessary effort.

That’s a lot of misspent labor when it is so easy to celebrate Jesus together.

Hey, don’t work so hard.