Reflection: A Change in Focus

I've often heard that expression: "Church is a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints." Nonetheless, something still hangs with me whenever I hear someone mention that they left the Church for the people in it. It resonates with me.

Truth be told, if I focused on Christians instead of Christ, I'd have left the faith a long time ago.

I can tolerate an immoral lost soul sans probleme (and am always impressed by a deeply moral one, of which there are many)—but a bad Christian is downright distasteful. Of course, most of these certainly don’t intend to misrepresent Christ, and we all make mistakes from time to time, but a difference should be drawn between those who know their sins and strive to avoid them, and those who fail to recognize them altogether. Ignorance exists in all of us, but excuses none of us—eternal lives are at stake, and we would do well to study the Word in a manner that extricates and applies the example of Christ. Our mindset should be that of vigilance, on the qui vive against any sign of our own faltering. I am reminded of an illustration I once heard from the pulpit: If you’re cruising, you’re going downhill.

At some point in this series, I lost the motivation to talk about Christian Living, and felt a deeper call instead to discuss Christians Living—that is to say, the sorts of people who make up the church and the things we can all learn from (and teach) each other. In an attempt to refresh my own vigil, as well as all of yours, my next series, entitled Christians Today will deal with the faces of American Christianity. Each of these are present in us to a certain extent, due to their pervasiveness in our culture; however, as we take a look at each, it is my hope that we aspire to lessen the influence of some and increase that of others in our lives. Nonetheless, remember the wisdom of Solomon as you read: to every thing there is a season (KJV). Sometimes, God requires us to drive people from the temple, and other times, say nothing at all.

For that reason, I ask that you pray a blessing over the writer and the readers of this blog as a new day dawns on it:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.


Some of you should recognize that final blessing as Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer—a true gem of Christian thought, and one of few prayers written by others that I frequently lift up to God.