Colossians and Candid Community
In Saving Private Ryan, the troops are complaining among themselves. One approaches their commanding officer who keeps a somewhat mysterious back story to himself and asks why they never hear him complaining. Gripes go up the chain of command, he says. Never down.
A real-life friend of mine reminded me of such differing or distorted impressions. In graduate school, while my life was somewhat in turmoil, she seemed implacable. She even managed to complete a major paper overnight after being out of town with her family in response to a dear grandmother's passing. "How did you do that? I would have been freaking out and would have been unable to write the paper," I gushed admiringly. "You didn't see me when I was freaking out," she said with stoic candor.
Colossians 4 also speaks to the wisdom of sharing selectively. The first verse sets the ideal that authority would be used with grace, and the second gives us the appropriate outlet for where to file our complaint when the standard isn't met. Gripes go up the chain of command in our earnest prayers. Never down. Those who happen to be standing by need not be covered with the splatter of our vented disappointment. Paul says our Heavenly Father, the very top of the chain of command, awaits such earnest, unfiltered communication as would wear out the most patient human. Even in the same verse where Paul invites us to be earnest prayer, Paul says this candor is to be regulated, disciplined by vigilance in thanksgiving. Otherwise, it seems, even prayer can be a catchall for complaining, self-pity, or self-justification.
Our next distortion of the humbling Truth of Scripture is the Me and Jesus Fallacy. We take the instruction of Colossians 4 thus far, and that of the Gospel according to Saving Private Ryan, and convince ourselves that human relationships are superfluous. In this, we set ourselves up as more spiritual than the apostle Paul, surely an immediate light on our spiritual dashboard. The same Paul who calls others to walk in wisdom with respect to what they share with those who don't know Christ (verse five) and coaches us that we might know how to answer individual people in individual situations (verse six) is no spiritual Vulcan. If the child reminded of the Truth of Scripture says that she occasionally needs someone "with skin on" to remind her of that Truth, so does Paul.Tychicus, Paul says in verse seven, knows all there is to know about me. In fact, Paul trusts Christ enough with his reputation to send such a confidant to represent him.
Is talk, then, spewed for our immediate therapy, or are timely words chosen for the benefit of those who hear them? Where do we go with our gripes and our unprocessed bouts with anxiety? Do we use words as though, as Scripture says, we will be accountable for each one of them before Christ?
A real-life friend of mine reminded me of such differing or distorted impressions. In graduate school, while my life was somewhat in turmoil, she seemed implacable. She even managed to complete a major paper overnight after being out of town with her family in response to a dear grandmother's passing. "How did you do that? I would have been freaking out and would have been unable to write the paper," I gushed admiringly. "You didn't see me when I was freaking out," she said with stoic candor.
Colossians 4 also speaks to the wisdom of sharing selectively. The first verse sets the ideal that authority would be used with grace, and the second gives us the appropriate outlet for where to file our complaint when the standard isn't met. Gripes go up the chain of command in our earnest prayers. Never down. Those who happen to be standing by need not be covered with the splatter of our vented disappointment. Paul says our Heavenly Father, the very top of the chain of command, awaits such earnest, unfiltered communication as would wear out the most patient human. Even in the same verse where Paul invites us to be earnest prayer, Paul says this candor is to be regulated, disciplined by vigilance in thanksgiving. Otherwise, it seems, even prayer can be a catchall for complaining, self-pity, or self-justification.
Our next distortion of the humbling Truth of Scripture is the Me and Jesus Fallacy. We take the instruction of Colossians 4 thus far, and that of the Gospel according to Saving Private Ryan, and convince ourselves that human relationships are superfluous. In this, we set ourselves up as more spiritual than the apostle Paul, surely an immediate light on our spiritual dashboard. The same Paul who calls others to walk in wisdom with respect to what they share with those who don't know Christ (verse five) and coaches us that we might know how to answer individual people in individual situations (verse six) is no spiritual Vulcan. If the child reminded of the Truth of Scripture says that she occasionally needs someone "with skin on" to remind her of that Truth, so does Paul.Tychicus, Paul says in verse seven, knows all there is to know about me. In fact, Paul trusts Christ enough with his reputation to send such a confidant to represent him.
Is talk, then, spewed for our immediate therapy, or are timely words chosen for the benefit of those who hear them? Where do we go with our gripes and our unprocessed bouts with anxiety? Do we use words as though, as Scripture says, we will be accountable for each one of them before Christ?
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