danielredbeard’s weblog

^32-39Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times! Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse—some days it was you, other days your friends. If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them. If some enemies broke in and seized your goods, you let them go with a smile, knowing they couldn’t touch your real treasure. Nothing they did bothered you, nothing set you back. So don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion. ~ Hebrews 10

(edit: the previous way i wrote this sounded like i was whining, and i am not.…just trying to make some declarative statements about what i understand and what i don’t.)

This I know:  I am not to expect to be treated well or fair by not-yet-Christians. Jesus, and this passage, speak to that.

This I know: The Church is to serve one another in humility. It would be very bad to be the one who did nothing when we see someone sick, hurt, hungry, naked, etc.

This I know:  The Church is the “bride of Christ,” and that in the ancient sacred texts of Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths, God’s chosen people are likened to His bride (though in each faith, the chosen people are different).

This I do not know: How asking for help fits into all of this. Asking for help is the one thing that I’ve heard the most with regard to where I and my wife went wrong in our HC relationships – we assumed there would be help since our friends knew the crap condition of our marriage right now, and how stressful having reconstructive leg surgery would be with a toddler.

My fault in the HC drama, so it is explained to me by different people who do not know each other, was expecting The Church to be The Church. I should have asked for help, and not expected help to come.

Emotions want to disagree HARD with this, shake my fist at a few people. Yet this backwards logic would seem to fit with other Kingdom logic like the last will be first/the first will be last, and to die to self is to live, etc.

I am wrestling hard with this because as I think about it, I see more and more failures on my part – people I’ve not been ears/eyes/hands to, yet no one called me on it. This is hard.