Two Churches Battle It Out with Their Signs...

I know I promised that the next blog would be about the Ash Wednesday service last week (I hope to still get to that today) but my sister sent me this and, in the interest of church unity in the broader expressions of Christianity, I thought I would share it with you.

Apparently, these two churches - one Presbyterian and one Catholic - are across the street from each other and their theological differences spilled over onto their church signs when the Catholics placed "All Dogs Go to Heaven" on their sign...

A wolf and his pack

One of the neat things about being involved with the kids education is that I am reading, re-reading, and finally reading some great literature. I came across this line in Kipling's The Law of the Jungle just this morning:

Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back --
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

I've been thinking this morning about the many ways this applies to my family, my church, my job, especially this particular thought: when one suffers we all suffer; when one is successful we all are successful.

The scriptures tell us to"bear one anothers burdens, and in so doing, fulfill the Law of Christ." Sounds pretty close to Kipling's observation of the natural order of the Law of the Jungle.

Lord, help me today to remember the importance of each individual in my "pack" and help me as an individual to so do my part to make my "pack" a bastion of strength in this jungle in which we are living.

Thanks, Rudyard, for a great quote!

We're all in this together!

Follow-up thoughts on Ray Boltz blog

Here's some follow-up thoughts to the previous blog on Ray Boltz:

Was there no one in Ray's life in his 30 years of Christian marriage and ministry that he felt safe enough to confide in?

The concept of accountability is so important in the Church as is building a SAFE place for that accountability. Why is it in the Christian community that we feel that we cannot share our struggles until AFTER we have "victory" and have it all wrapped up in a nice little "testimony" OR until we have been overcome by our sin and discovered? How many times have I heard someone say "Lately I've been going through this horrible temptation but now I'm doing great" and I have wondered how we can build an environment that we feel free to say "I'm struggling NOW with this temptation and I need help, prayer, and support." Ray's story tells us that there are those all around us who really are hurting and struggling but do not feel safe to share those struggles because of the response that they (often rightly) fear will come. So we hide our struggles and do not bear each other's burdens.

I remember a few years ago at District Council that Dick Hardy stood and talked about the struggle that many pastor's have with internet pornography and he mentioned that if you called and talked to him as the HonorBound director that your credentials would not be automatically in jeopardy because he wanted to see ministers get HELP to overcome rather than waiting until it is too late.

While I am not ready to advocate a return to the RCC concept of the "confessional booth" I think creating an environment where confession is taken seriously and people then receive loving accountability and the healing that the church CAN offer is a worthy goal- when we don't know the struggle it is difficult to help.

Any thoughts?

After all...we're all in this together!