Conflicted, but cleansed

Think about what we have in Christ: the encouragement he has brought us, the comfort of his love, our sharing in his Spirit, and the mercy and kindness he has shown us. If you enjoy these blessings, then do what will make my joy complete: Agree with each other and show your love for each other. Be united in your goals and in the way you think. In whatever you do, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble, and honor others more than yourselves. Don’t be interested only in your own life, but care about the lives of others too. (Philippians 2:1-4)

What exactly do we have in Christ? If we stop for even a short period of time and consider this question, we will likely begin to list a few things that immediately come to mind. Consider it a bit longer and we will find there are things we didn't even realize we 'have' at our access because we have never tapped into them. Even though the blessings of God are upon our lives, we find there will be times when we are called upon to do things that may be a bit 'out of our comfort zone'. He asks us to embrace someone who has offended us, take up a battle in prayer for someone who is just plain worn out from the battle, or give unselfishly of what we possess to allow it to become a blessing in another's. The 'things' God asks aren't going to rock our world monumentally, but they likely will incrementally!

Unity of spirit isn't going to 'just happen' in our world today, but whenever we come into the fellowship of other believers, we should rejoice. Why? They are there to help us grow, challenging us to lay down our selfishness and pride just a bit more, while embracing whatever it is that God has prepared for us to do today. It is a dangerous thing to be guided by our pride, isn't it? Pride gets us into so many 'pickles' in life. We find ourselves dreading the outcome, all because our pride got us into something we weren't supposed to be involved in at all. Whenever this happens, it is best to admit it, confession being the first step toward repentance. Pride always goes before bad choices - the outcome of the choices being referred to as a 'fall'. Pride goeth before a fall - your fall might be the challenge today, mine tomorrow - so we need each other!

When we take an interest in the lives of those God has placed in our life, we are going to find there are times when the atmosphere is charged with conflict, but not all conflict is bad. In fact, some conflict actually produces positive outcomes. For example, when I didn't want to wash up as a kid, mom would not allow that dilly-dallying to continue, knowing my 'unwashed' condition was not healthy, nor very pleasing in appearance or odor! So, she'd shoo me into the tub in spite of my resistance. What was produced by the conflict between what I wanted and what I needed? Cleanliness! Sometimes conflict leads to a cleansing process - we find our true 'need' being highlighted and the means to have that need met provided. Living in community with each other might just produce the necessary 'conflict' that brings about the deepest 'cleansing' of our lives. Just sayin!