Comfortable? NOT!
M. Jolaine Szymkowiak, MA-EM
Matthew 16:24
This week I had a troubling phone call from a friend. She had received a recent letter from me in which I explained my faith. I had tried to encourage her, hopefully provide her with a model. How presumptuous of me! Christ is our only model. I realized at that moment, I felt a very inadequate example of someone trying to live a life in relationship with Christ.
In her reply, I could hear myself as I was many years ago. She felt comfortable with what she was doing. She said, "I have more things on my mind than just God, in being married, raising a family, working outside the home. You are single, have more time for devotion, prayer and Bible reading." In that I knew she was right and biblically correct (1 Corinthians 7:34). However as she continued, I became more concerned. She believed in John 3:16 and that was good enough. She believed and was comfortable with her relationship to God. My friend may have accepted Christ but there is so much more. She may have a relationship to God, but did she have one with God?
As I talked with her, I saw my past self, empty, with a spiritual hunger I didn't at the time realize or would have known how to satisfy. What I would have given for a letter from a friend showing me the way to satisfy that hunger; or would I have reacted as she did?
Some years following that phone call, I did get such a letter from a Christian friend I hadn't heard from in many years. In it he stated he and his wife felt guilty that they had never addressed a situation I was in at the time we had known each other. They had talked many times of approaching me about it but never felt the freedom to confront me on the issue. He wished now he would have been bolder, and he asked my forgiveness. Would I have listened at that time, or become judgmental and hurt?
I had become rooted in self, in doing things my way. It was only when I reached bottom that I came again to ...
M. Jolaine Szymkowiak, MA-EM
Matthew 16:24
This week I had a troubling phone call from a friend. She had received a recent letter from me in which I explained my faith. I had tried to encourage her, hopefully provide her with a model. How presumptuous of me! Christ is our only model. I realized at that moment, I felt a very inadequate example of someone trying to live a life in relationship with Christ.
In her reply, I could hear myself as I was many years ago. She felt comfortable with what she was doing. She said, "I have more things on my mind than just God, in being married, raising a family, working outside the home. You are single, have more time for devotion, prayer and Bible reading." In that I knew she was right and biblically correct (1 Corinthians 7:34). However as she continued, I became more concerned. She believed in John 3:16 and that was good enough. She believed and was comfortable with her relationship to God. My friend may have accepted Christ but there is so much more. She may have a relationship to God, but did she have one with God?
As I talked with her, I saw my past self, empty, with a spiritual hunger I didn't at the time realize or would have known how to satisfy. What I would have given for a letter from a friend showing me the way to satisfy that hunger; or would I have reacted as she did?
Some years following that phone call, I did get such a letter from a Christian friend I hadn't heard from in many years. In it he stated he and his wife felt guilty that they had never addressed a situation I was in at the time we had known each other. They had talked many times of approaching me about it but never felt the freedom to confront me on the issue. He wished now he would have been bolder, and he asked my forgiveness. Would I have listened at that time, or become judgmental and hurt?
I had become rooted in self, in doing things my way. It was only when I reached bottom that I came again to ...
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