A Broken Chair

Recently I was in a leadership meeting for my family's local church, where I serve as the Worship Pastor.  The meeting started as it usually does, with a nice dinner usually provided by whoever is hosting the meeting.  After some time of fellowship over our meal, it was time to get down to the business of the church.  

When we plan, we talk about how we can best honor God and the people we are privileged to serve.  Whether it's about how to create a safe, exciting environment for kids, or how allocate funds to be used in serving our community, or simply deciding on what equipment and supplies we need to purchase we cover a lot of territory in our meetings. 

At this particular meeting, we were reviewing some details of a previous meeting when all of a sudden one of our team members went crashing to the floor!  His chair simply broke underneath him!  He wasn't leaning back or sitting in some unusual manner - he was just sitting there.

A few of us jumped up to aid our downed fellow and immediately the questions started flying.  "What did you do?" "Were you leaning back?"  I'll admit, I was holding back laughter as guys often do when one of our own experiences such a moment. 

Isn't that how life can be sometimes?  We are strolling along, doing our thing and BAM, something comes out of nowhere and we are left looking around wondering what the heck just happened! And quite often the people around us are left asking the same questions I mentioned about, implying something was our fault.  

Once our teammate went down, a couple in our group jumped to his aid, helping him to his feet and getting him another chair.  Once he was situated and the laughter and concern had died down we went on with the meeting, taking care of some much needed business. We then ended our time together with a powerful time of prayer, lifting each other up before our living God.

The illustration from that evening has lingered in my mind for a while.  I think about all the ways it relates to the body of Christ.  I narrowed it down to this: How do we respond when people around us go crashing down?  What is our knee-jerk reaction when a brother or sister's world falls apart?  Do we rush to his or her aid?  Do we stand by and stare?  Do we immediately start asking questions like Job's friends did, assuming that the person must have done something to deserve what came his way?

When circumstances go bad for those around us it certainly can be because they made bad decisions. Or it can be because they are simply at the wrong place at the right time.  And sometimes life just stinks and we are wronged through no fault of our own.

Whatever the case, if we carry the label "Christian" we need to respond appropriately in times of trial and darkness.  Because if we call ourselves Christians, we are proclaiming that we, like Jesus, are willing to respond in love.  

Take for instance the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8.  She was brought before the crowd (by the religious leaders nonetheless!) because the law instructed that she be stoned.  In stead of Jesus condemning her, he comes to her aid.  He then invites those in the crowd who are without sin to cast the first stone.  After that he lets her know that He does not accuse her.  Finally, after all the other steps, he lets her know that her behavior is sinful, and that she is to do it no more.

Notice that Jesus doesn’t ignore her sin!  But please friends understand that his first response is quite different than what we often see from the Christian community.  While my life was falling apart because of my drinking there were plenty of folks who were talking about me behind my back.  Some even passed judgement on Jen, assuming she knew things she didn’t.   The fact is I had many people close to me fooled.  And when our world came crashing down it was obvious who wanted to stand by us.  

In closing I want to invite you to consider how you respond when the chair crumbles out from under someone you know.  Do you stare, laugh and accuse?  Or do you rush to his or her side, making sure the person knows he is loved and cared about.  If you do the latter, you will not only be blessing the person struggling to get footing, you will also be following in the footsteps of Jesus.  And when that happens, lives change.  Yours, the person on the ground, and those who are watching!