Hugs and compasses

Yesterday I had a very in-depth and interesting conversation with someone about 'church' and where I'm at. It was not at all criticising in a negative way but was constructive and helpful. In the end we both came to the same conclusion and likened our situation to that of being a parent. Our children know the things that please us and when they want to make us happy they try to do the things that they know will please us. But as parents we know that there are those precious, intimate moments when they snuggle up and just want to be with us, sometimes whispering secrets in our ears and other times just relaxing. Those moments say far more than the 'good deeds'. In other situations we can all try to please those in authority but we don't have the same relationship with them. It's those precious moments of just being together that make the parent/child relationship so special and the bonding deepens.

As a church we can be so focussed on doing things that we think please God when God really wants to give us a big hug. There is nothing wrong per se with doing things for God and wanting to please Him but that in itself does not give us this special relationship as His children. This is true not just in private moments when we are on our own but it is important in our corporate setting. We don't come together as a church just to do things for God but to meet together corporately to be in His presence and deepen our intimacy with Him. If as a church we do not have these times then our relationship with God is simply as a person in authority and not Father.

I also had another picture - completely different. Our journey together as church is a bit like going on a journey guided by a compass. We can be facing in the direction we need to go but if our compass is only 1 degree off course then we will end up in a completely different place. We need to keep our focus fixed on God and as soon as we shift our focus, even ever so slightly to what we are doing, even if that is in the same direction, then that slightly out-of-focus attitude will mean that we end up somewhere where we really don't want to be and never really intended to be. 'Jesus be the centre'.