Romans 1:11-12 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
During this time of heightened awareness of the fragility of life and the double-edged sword of being around people, there is one thing I have learned. We need each other. Life is not the same when we live in separate bubbles.
Life is meant to be shared with others, life with all its ups and downs, bumps and bruises, messy, uncontrolled, rollercoaster, barf-bag moments. We are meant to live with others in these moments so that when the moments of joy and jubilation come, they have new meaning in contrast to the unpleasant ones. We can know what true joy is because we have lived through the true sorrows.
But it is so easy to abandon people when they seem to live always in mess and chaos. They can seem to drag us down into their mess rather than our peace and quiet raising them up. But that is the way chaos works. Chaos only gets resolved through the application of peace and order.
Both parties must be willing to give and take. The one in chaos must be willing to give up what has become familiar and maybe even comfortable. They must give up the known for the unknown and that is difficult.
The Apostle Paul is writing the citizens of the city of Rome, both Jews and non-Jews. He wants to provide them with the fulness of the Gospel found in Jesus. Paul names this a “spiritual gift.” He wants to bring it to them.
But what is that gift that Paul wants to bring? He wants mutual encouragement. He wants to encourage them and he wants to be encouraged himself. Paul knows that if they respond to the Gospel then he will be encouraged.
That is because the Gospel is encouraging. It is not the standing on the street corner shouting about condemnation kind of message. It is the throwing a life preserver to a drowning person kind of message. It is a message that speaks to the heart of every person who is honest about the condition of their own heart. It speaks a word of hope, life and love.
But hope, life and love can be very hard to hear, especially in times like today when the raging rhetoric degrades the soul of those who hear it. It wears away the hope we have like the dripping of a Chinese water torture. And we need our hope in times like this, hope that lasts beyond the election and into eternity.
If our hope is temporal, then we really are in bad shape. But we have a hope that carries us into eternity, Jesus Christ. Let’s work to anchor each other in this hope. A phone call, an email, or dare I say a face to face meeting complete with hand shakes and hugs might be just what is needed!
The Arnold Journey 