Merge Your Worlds Together

12/30/2006

The question is, where should she begin? Should she start with her own family? Her extended family members are not yet Christians so she feels discouraged to continue because of her situation. What should she do?

Do you have sisters and brothers in your church world that you trust and love? If so, involve them in your home, and they will together be more of the Light of God for your family members. Merge your worlds together and Jesus will become more and more Present and more and more Alive. He will be there in more and more wisdom and be the Light of the world for your family as you involve others who also have Jesus.

It’s not that you have to get one thing right before you can do the other. Squeeze the worlds all together. Involve your brothers and sisters in Christ, in your world. Let them meet your family members. Do the things in your life together with them and Jesus will then use them to help open the eyes of your family members too. They will also encourage you in the other things that you do.

What he is talking about is a beautiful thing. I have a son and a daughter at home too. When we left on this trip I thought, “I’m going on a long trip. I will be gone for many, many days and maybe forever. There is no guarantee that I will come back from this trip. Sometimes people don’t. So what about my son? What about my daughter? Will they be okay?” I wasn’t thinking about just their lives physically, but spiritually—will they be okay? The reason I can have courage to come on a trip like this is because the answer is, “Yes, they will be okay.” It’s because I’ve chosen to join my life to other people who love Jesus, so my children get the benefit of that just like I do.

I’ve gotten several text messages from my home since I’ve been here. One from my son said, “Dad, yesterday I was with Glen.” Glen is a good brother who lives in my neighborhood just five houses down from me and is part of the church. He is someone who I have joined my life together with. The message from my son said, “Glen asked me to come over today, and we were reading something very special about the Blood of Jesus. We talked together about it, and I was able to talk to him about some very real things in my life and it meant so much to me.” Then a few hours later I got a text message from Glen saying, “Justin came over today and I really appreciated the time. I think you would have been very encouraged.” I’ve gotten similar messages from my daughter and from some of the sisters that she knows.

That sort of thing is such a treasure to my heart! I’m only one person, and even when I’m home I’m only one person. I have only a certain amount of the gifting of Jesus. I can’t be more than I am, and I can only be in one place at one time anyway. I have brothers and sisters intertwined with my life that express aspects of Jesus’ character and life and gifting in ways that are greater than what I have. So my son and my daughter get the same benefits when they are with those brothers and sisters. They gain something from those brothers and sisters that they could never gain from me in quite the same way.

Are you familiar with mosaics? You can take pieces of shell or glass or stone and put them all together. Maybe you have a hundred or even a thousand little pieces. You put them together and they make a very detailed and beautiful picture called a mosaic. It can be the same thing in our church. I’m just one little stone or shell and maybe I have some aspect of the whole in me. Someone could look at me and say, “That’s a creation of God.” But if you joined me together with all the others, it can be a very beautiful picture that is so much more than just me by myself. It can be a picture of Jesus in the lives that are joined together.

So the only way that I even have courage to be a parent is because I have other believers whose lives are joined with mine. It’s not that I will be irresponsible. I will be very responsible with my children. But I know that there are others through whom Jesus is reaching, helping and nurturing my children, and that is a very precious thing to me.

•  Merge Your Worlds Together