Monday Reflections and a long trip home

We are back from Colorado.  It means a long 15 hour trip across our great country.  What do I do to fill up the time while driving that distance?  I listen to sermons so yesterday it was one sermon from the late R.C. Sproul from Ligioner Ministries, two sermons from John MacArthur from Grace Church in California, one sermon from Alistair Begg from Parkside Community Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and one sermon from Mark Dever from Captial Hill Baptist in Washington D.C.  In the midst of those instructions from God's word, I think it was Alistair who made a reference to Winnie the Pooh and specifically Eeyore.  That little illustration got my mind drifting back to all those Winnie the Pooh adventures in the Hundred Acre Woods.  A. A. Milne gave us some characters with some distinct qualities.  Here is the list.

1.  Winnie the Pooh - very optimistic - the dreamer

2.  Eeyore - very pessimistic - the doomsayer

3.  Piglet - an introvert - the fearful

4.  Tigger - an extrovert - the fearless

5.  Owl - an intellectual - the skeptic

6.  Rabbit - a legalist - the judge

7.  Kanga - a balanced parent - the guiding one

8.  Roo - a questioning child - the trusting one

9.  Christopher Robin - a leader who cares - the shepherd

10.  Heffalump - an enemy - the evil one

Which one are you?  Which one am I?  It is probably a combination of a couple.  I am in the role of a Christopher Robin but I battle with being a Winnie the Pooh that dreams a little too much.  I couldn't help but look at these characters and their major portrayals and see the church.  The church is made up of all these and we call ourselves God's family with Jesus as our Christopher Robin.  We even have our Heffalump called Satan.  

How we need Christ and how we need each other.  Any strength that we have can lead to a weakness that needs the help of another's strength.  Pooh's optimistic attitude brings a smile but sometimes leads to unrealistic goals that are brought into check by Rabbit's realistic rules.  Rabbit's rules can bring judgment on others that are brought into check by Kanga's focus on the relationships.  Tigger's energy is appreciated but it can lead into areas where caution is needed because Roo, the child is there and Piglet's fear is voiced to halt the dangerous direction.  Piglet's fear can halt the progress forward without the voice of Christopher Robin carrying Piglet to see the fear is unfounded.  You could go on and on how this team assembled needs each other.

Is this a good picture of the church?  We need each other.  If we could be humble and vulnerable, we could say which character that we lean toward and therefore admit that we need the opposite or the good trait of another to help us be more balanced in our life.  God knew what He was doing when He put us together as a church family.  Of course, we need to listen to our Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who knows how to do battle with our enemy, Satan.  Our Shepherd, Jesus, cares about each one of us, no matter if we are a Pooh or a Piglet, a Eeyore or a Tigger, an Owl or a Rabbit, or a Kanga or a Roo.  

So that is where my mind was running to yesterday in the car ride home.  This will definitely turn into a radio broadcast in the future with some more thought about its illustrative teaching qualities.  Let me close with 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verses 12 through 14.

"For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body--so also is Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and we were all given one Spirit to drink.  Indeed, the body is not one part by many."

Adam