GodReflection: Lonely? —Glad you are here, you are family.
My pray today is that you discover in Jesus’s church you are not alone. In his church Jesus cures loneliness in each of our specific deserts—no matter the location. I am aware that as I reflect on my own desert church, many of you will find little that is parallel to your own experience. Perhaps, others will pick up something that will send you down your own private memory lane.
However, I cannot make any attempt at being honest with my own Bible without
the admission that my desert church plays a major role—probably more than I realize—in the way I read my Bible all these decades later.
From my childhood town in the heat of the Chihuahuan Desert it is safe to assume we did not have the magic formula on how to do church. It is not much of an overstatement to say my church was also my family. True, some of its adherents were members of my genetic family while others just felt like it. From my young perspective, our church lived family. Loneliness was not a member.
My desert church had a family tree. It traced our genetic origin back to the eighteen hundreds tied closely to the proposition that we too could be identical in form, function, and purpose to the first-century New Testament church.
The Bible was held with great esteem by our church family. A high premium was placed on the knowledge of right and wrong. From the values of Scripture and the emphasis on doing right we created and were taught our own tribal traditions through conclusions drawn from previous generations and taught in the family pulpit. One thing they got right—Jesus Cures loneliness in each of our specific deserts, no matter the location.
Leaders in the roles of elder, preacher, teacher, song leader, and deacon set the tone for our desert church. From them we learn that arguments were to end in peace. From them we learned the contents of our Bible. From them we saw family in action. We were never alone.
The congregation’s pulpit played a huge role in the way I read my Bible. From baby blanket to high school graduation I must have slept, wiggled and listened to over twenty-five hundred sermons. No, the pulpit proclaimers didn’t get it all right. They preached from lives of diverse preparation and diverse backgrounds. But their respect for God’s Holy Bible was never in doubt.
It is partially from my desert church formation that I read my Bible today. From that experience both right and wrong presuppositions screen my encounter with my Bible. Like those of our own
family tree, my desert church family was flawed by us human types who called ourselves brothers, sisters, and mischievous kids. But the desert family patience, love, and desire to follow God and His Son held us together. We were a community that loved each other.
I suspect that each of us who worship today in churches of our twenty-first century use the exposure we encounter in current congregations to form filters through which we read our Bible. From our church tribes, their tribal origins, their traditions, and their view of Scripture we all approach our Bible in diversity. We all want Jesus to cure the loneliness in our deserts.
The congregational emphasis of exclusivity or acceptance of other Christ followers influences the way we and outsiders view Scripture today. Our beliefs and conclusions drawn through the repetition of worship songs—many with words that don’t accurately portray God—over time create concepts and ideas in our minds eye that color the way we read our Bible.
Vibrant teachers within congregations who share an exciting Creator God are more likely to instill
in students an intrigue with their Bible. Teachers who personify a bottle of sleep medication become a barrier that can dissuade others from discovery of the richness and joy to be found at the feet of God’s opened book.
My hope for each of us is that in some way we might come out of our self-imposed desert places and live as a loving church. A fellowship of believers who serve as a positive corporate lens through which others can see the authentic Jesus. Let’s be an irresistible draw they can’t resist as they join with us to read a Bible that speaks to each of our realities. Again, my prayer before God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, is that you discover in Jesus’s church you are not alone. In his church Jesus Cures loneliness in each of our specific deserts—no matter the location.
Stay tuned.
Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection on Jesus Cures Loneliness In Our Deserts.
God Reflection 