Do You Want To Be On My Team??

The world will know we are christians by our love. It's a song--most of us are familiar by it, but I have been convicted by it. God wants to use the church to bring people to Him--and instead, it seems like people look at the church as a reason to stay far away from Him. We've been hurt--talked about--ignored--excluded--judged, and the people outside the church have experienced the same things, and they don't want any part of it.

I am thinking that that breaks God's heart. At times, I tend to be an island. Thinking that being a christian is just about having a relationship with Jesus--and then He will 'work' on me, and then maybe I can go out into the world and tell someone else about Him.

I am missing the point--and I really am a pretty relational person--but only up to a point. The old Simon and Garfunkle song comes to mind...

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Don't talk of love,
Well, I've heard the word before.
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I wonder--does the world see us loving one another--so much so, that they want to be apart of it all?

Are we such a team, that we would do anything God asks us to, for one another? Or are we caught up in our own dramas with one another?

I watched a Francis Chan message/podcast. He talked about this issue and compared it to a few years back when Koby Bryant and Shaq were playing for the Lakers. They had so much talent. They should have won the championship, but they were too preoccupied fighting with one another. They were too involved in their own drama--that they forgot there was something big happening--like the possibility of the TEAM winning a championship.

Good analogy--I think. Am I too occupied with my own personal dramas. Am I worrying about how someone has hurt me and refusing to forgive? Am I too busy looking at other's faults--thinking they are harming our reputation, and ignoring the huge plank in my own life? Am I forgetting about what is really supposed to be happening--the big show, and not my little puny drama?

Do those who have yet to believe know I am a christian by the way I love other christians? When they come in our churches--do they feel that we authentically care about each other--and are they just yearning to be apart of our family or are they finding more community, love and caring at the corner 'Cheers' bar or athletic gym?

Not sure how to end this post...I need to spend some time on my knees.