One of the more frustrating parts of flying is getting caught in a holding pattern over a busy airport. You know you’re right on top of it but you can’t do anything because there’s too many others ahead of you, and so you go round and round until you eventually get cleared to land.
Have you ever felt that about your life in general? Have you ever felt that the purposes of God have marched on and left you behind?
We all piled into the plane, and no sooner had we sat down the pilot informed us we couldn’t take off due to poor weather conditions at our destination. Which fact he knew perfectly well before we got on. And so we sat there for another hour, wondering why they couldn’t have left us in the departure lounge instead.
Waiting. Who likes it?
It is a strange feeling here at the Bible College in Athens. When you quote 1 or 2 Corinthians, you realize Corinth is just a couple hours drive away. Same with Thessalonica. Athens, where Paul confronted and began to destroy the fate-based civilization that controlled the thinking of the much of the ancient world, is just down the road.
Church is lots of things. In one aspect it’s an army, in another sense a hospital, in yet another a school. But above all, church is family.
Family is a wonderful thing, and none of us would ever want to lose it. Family is the place of closest trust and relationship. But the places of closest trust are also the places of deepest hurt.
That’s why we need to be so watchful about the health of the family of God. Church is God’s family. It should be the place of closest relationship, but when things go wrong people get hurt. And badly.
