The Invisible Foe

I am back into the routine of waking up and going to school and working. There is a part of me that is sad and a part of me that yearns for the structure of the routine, something to focus on. It’s comforting to have tasks in front of you that you can address, achieve or fail at. There is nothing worse than an invisible foe.

This summer I have battled an invisible foe. But I don't believe it is what most folks tell me it is. So many people tell me, "The devil is behind gossip. This is the devil's work." While I believe that this behavior, the destructive work of lies, innuendo and rumor have made the devil very happy, it’s REAL people that start these things. It’s real flesh and blood people who spread things. Think about that. When we excuse the behavior as just the evil one and that we should just endure we ignore the fact that people are at the root of these stories. It’s a cop out to push the blame onto a supernatural force that, all though he may reap benefit from them, didn't start the rumors in the first place. Real people say these things. Real people.

So who or what is the invisible enemy that I feel I have battled all summer? This invisible foe is self-righteousness... the belief that churchgoers must be perfect, must be without blemish, must be white cloaked and right. This is a lovely idea. But it spawns a drive for judgment over justice. Church becomes a place of moral traffic police punishing its members.

This isn't just here in my town. We have seen it through the years in Salem during the witch trials, in the Spanish Inquisition, in the Deep South during the high days of the KKK and countless other places where man under the banner of God and Jesus become the moral authority that seek vengeance on sinners and outcasts.

Let us remember the important fact that we all fall short of the glory of God. To poorly paraphrase Rob Bell, the most important part of the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is not that it HAPPENED but that it HAPPENS. It happens to us all. We all fight God’s plan for us. We all are broken by sin. On our own we are all damaged and in need of saving. This is why it happened. This is why Jesus Came. This is the awesome answer. We are broken and we need Jesus. We all do. If you act perfect, you are denying the fact that you aren’t God. You are human and you are flawed and you have bitten the apple and need Jesus to fix you and bring you back. And boy do we ever need Jesus every day to work in us and restore us and work his healing magic to create that new man in his image.

It is time to leave the tickets behind and return my focus on becoming that image. It is time to return to the Lord’s work, wherever that may lead me. It is time to get back to work.

So back to the routine. Back to waking up and rolling into the school and working with the kids. I will throw myself into my work for a while. I know I can minister the Gospel just as much here in the halls of school as I ever did in a church. I will lead by example and with Christ's heart. And we will give judgment of the invisible foe over to a much better judge, the Father God Almighty.