Commercial Interruption: If We Are the Body

There are some common themes that flow through the writings in Bipolar World.

It’s pretty obvious that I’m a Christian. It’s also obvious that I make no claims to having my act together. My struggles with mental illness, sexual addiction, dysfunctional family, horrible relationships… have all been shared here, but I never want to let people think that this is anything other than a Christian blog telling anybody who will read it about Jesus Christ and the transformation he’s brought about in my life.

The themes that advance my cause (his cause really) are forgiveness, reconciliation, dealing with root issues,spiritual healing, conflict management, and unity.

I’ve blogged a lot about the masks that people wear and our need to be transparent. I frequently pull out my soap box encouraging people to  figure out how God has wired them  up so that they can use their talents/gifts and abilities to work with other people who believe in The Way so that, together, they can do his will which is to love the world on his behalf.

Unfortunately, people are people... and, like me, they bring a lot of garbage packed in baggage to the table. The very same people we’re supposed to be loving on “in Jesus name” are often the people who get voted off the island. They somehow made their way into a church only to find that people in church wear masks too. That’s probably why so many non-believers have so many issues with “The Church” or “Organized Religion.” They haven’t been able to see past the masks people were to see the hurting people behind them. That’s what churches are. Groups of hurting people who have been drawn in by the promise of love and eternal life that is Jesus. People come in with these great expectations and often leave disappointed rather than wait around to see how Jesus deals with masks.

I wore my mask like it’d been Super Glued on for so long I thought that I’d born that way. It took Jesus years to get me to remove my mask so that people could see who I really was. But the mask didn’t come off in isolation, it came off as people within the “body” of Christ took off their masks, so that I could see who they really were. As people acted like his hands and feet in my life, my life began to change. As his heart for me began to beat through the people he’d placed around me, my heart learned to respond. It wasn’t one person or one church. The body of Christ is made up of many different people and congregations and denominations spread out over different cities, states, countries, and continents. But the body of Christ only works if we take our masks off; and if we help those who seem more broken than we are… to take off theirs.

I found a video that, seemed kinda lame at first… but it picked up on a few of my motivating themes and eventually it made me cry. The song is sure to be in my head for a few days. Now, I hope it stays in yours:

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