four years ago, when i came to mtsu for the first time, i looked around for a church for a whole semester, finally landing at this little baptist church on the corner of campus where some of my new-found friends were going. while we were there, the pastor did everything he could to to accommodate us as college students. everything from staying up late to lock up after we'd been there on a weeknight to standing up to his deacons, putting his job on the line, to protect our place in their church family.
two years ago, after all but one of those friends graduated and moved away, i decided to leave. but i didn't tell anybody... i just left and never went back. not even giving the man who had done so much for me a simple "goodbye".
ever since then, it has weighed heavily on my heart. i felt awful for the longest time. i knew that God had drawn me away from that church to another one in the area, and that i was now at the right place to give myself away to a group of teenagers. but i had left so badly.
two saturdays ago, i was sending out some letters to announce my graduation and to ask for support through prayer for my move to logan, and felt it was time to do something about it. i wrote a letter to the pastor and put it in an envelope with a copy of this other letter and taped it to the door of the church. then sunday, i went back. i was so scared of what his reaction would be because i knew i had messed up. after the service, we got to talk and catch up, and it was wonderful. i must've apologized a dozen times in the letter, but in person, it was like those words didn't even cut it to explain what i felt. but he did not require anything of me. it was as though it was all old news. a marvelous picture of God's mercy on us.
God is teaching me the dire importance of reconciliation. his people cannot continue to be divided by petty differences, deep hurts and denominational boundaries. or as paul wrote:
"[12]For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. [13]For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. [14]For the body does not consist of one member but of many. [15]If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. [16]And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. [17]If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? [18]But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. [19]If all were a single member, where would the body be? [20]As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
[21]The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." [22]On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, [23]and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, [24]which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, [25]that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. [26]If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together."-[1 corinthians 12:12-26]"[4] For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. [5] There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all."
-[ephesians 4:4-6]
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