Our Striving!

"Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." (Colossians 1:29).


Hello To All:

Recently I traveled to the state of Washington, on the west coast of North America. This is my way of saying that this posting is going to be an interruption to the series of essays on "Faith Is A Noun."

The purpose of my trip was to visit my two brothers. I am the oldest of three and I typically make an annual visit to their part of the world. I was gone for two weeks with the time split between my brothers and their families. The weather was wonderful and we had some good times with each other. I am already looking forward to next year!

During one of the afternoons, I was blessed with an opportunity to visit a museum that specializes in the history of wooden boats in the coastal regions of Washington state. Our Creator has blessed me with skills as a carpenter; and at one point in my life journey I worked in the wooden boat industry, doing new construction and repair work. When I am working with wood, with hand tools, I take great comfort in being reminded that our Creator's earthly father was a carpenter; and the probability is very high that Jesus also worked as a carpenter. I have a deep and abiding awareness of His hands guiding mine!

As part of the museum's exhibits, a large shop area was devoted to the hands on experience of working on wooden boats. For a period of about one half hour, I was allowed to be in the shop area and observe the students at work. There were four students and an instructor. The students were from a local high school and were involved in a nine month internship. They came once a week and I was fortunate to be there on the day of the week that was their day.

On this particular day, their work assignment was to hand plane the edge of a pine board, until the edge was straight and also square to the sides of the board. The boards were less than two feet long and were clamped in a vise at the edge of a bench. A skilled wood worker would only need a few minutes to complete this assigned task. At the end of my half hour of observation, these four students were no closer to finishing the task, than they were at the beginning of the half hour.

The instructor was committed to his students; and he devoted a great deal of time to each student. His instruction had the singular purpose of showing them how they were falling short of the objective. He would point out the places where the edge was not straight; and he would also show them where the edge was not square to the sides. Time and time again, the instructor went through this process with each student; and time and time again each student failed to make any progress!

The students worked hard and the instructor was committed in his efforts to help them achieve their goal of completing this task with the pine board and their hand tools. Because of how our Lord Jesus Christ has empowered me and equipped me, I was able to recognize why they were not making any progress. These students did not have a clue about how to properly use a block plane. A block plane is usually a small metal bodied hand tool. The students each had one, but they did not know how to use one in an effective manner; and the instructor was not giving them any help with regards to the use of this hand tool, that was so strange to them.

The students were striving to achieve their goal. The instructor was striving to remind them of their goal. But, in the midst of all this striving, no one had a clue about how they could be empowered to achieve their goal. In this case, the empowerment was in the knowledge and experience necessary to properly use a block plane. Without that knowledge and experience, there would not be any empowerment; and the students would continue to fail to achieve their desired goals. All of their striving ended in failure!

A short time prior to my trip, I received a telephone call from a good friend of mine. In Christ Jesus we are brothers; and often our conversations center on our journey with Him. In prior conversations, the subject of striving has been examined; and during this conversation, we once again took a good hard look at striving.

The challenge, with regards to striving, is to recognize that in the Christian journey, we have competing perspectives regarding the objective of striving. The institutional church compels us to strive to be better Christians. We are constantly being reminded about these ellusive objectives that, once achieved, can make us better Christians. The Lord our God, compels us, through His Spirit, to know Him in a deeper and more abiding way. He does this by compelling us to strive to know Him better, in and through the fullness of the revelation of Himself that we have in His Son, Jesus Christ.

The four students, that I observed, were struggling with striving to achieve their goal with regards to the edge of that board in their vise. They should have been striving to understand the mystery of the block plane. Had they gone deeper into that mystery, it is just possible that they would have discovered how to be empowered to achieve their goals. When I left them, they were still struggling. I wanted to reach out to them, to help them in their journey; but, it was clear that the instructor was not in a position to cheerfully receive my input.

This forum, regarding "Victorious Discipleship In Jesus Christ," is a blessing to me in so many ways. Near the top of that list of blessings is the reality that I am empowered by Jesus Christ to reach out to you, my beloved brethren, in ways that can help you to be more effective in your own efforts with regards to striving. From time to time, all of us need to be reminded that our striving needs to be focused on Jesus of Nazareth. He is the one who can empower us to be the Christians that He wants us to be.

Until next time my beloved brethren, in Christ Jesus, I continue to be:

Your servant and your fellow pilgrim,
Elder Theophilus