Individual Responsibility

As I scraped the latest layer of ice from the windshield, I looked at the winter wonderland surrounding me. Snow hadn't fallen for days, yet trees still remained flocked, and piles of snow sat as large and as white as the day I'd made them. Temps have been in the teens, locking everything (including me if I didn't absolutely have to go out) in place. Only the occasional gust of wind rattles limbs and sprays snow from the trees and shrubs. It was such a gust our youngest was awaiting as I readied the car for his short ride to school. When it came, he jumped and waved his arms. It's snowing! he shouted, reliving the joy of those first few moments of snow when it arrived days before. As quickly as it began, however, his little blizzard had ceased, and he stood awaiting the next. The snow had been carried away on the wind, and the tree that rose above him was now bare and brown once again. Watching this scene, I was reminded of Eph. 4:14,

that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting

Okay, so the verse is smack dab in the middle of one of the Apostle Paul's characteristic looooong sentences. But the point the Holy Spirit, through Paul, is making here is that through various men and various means, we are to submit, become equipped, mature, strive to reach "the stature of the fullness of Christ," stay the course, that the entire body of Christ might be exalted and matured. 

Snow, carried on the wind blows everywhere, whirling and colliding. It cannot form a snowman; it cannot choose its direction. It goes wherever it is pushed: no plan, no will. Sadly, there are those who have heard the truth of Jesus, who He is, what He has done; perhaps they attend church regularly, maybe serve on the board; but He has no place in their daily decisions or even their conversation. He's their Sunday suit, their panic button, their last resort. The Holy Spirit has set over them teachers and shepherds and evangelists; they have Scripture at their disposal --maybe more than one dusty Bible in their home. But they refuse to tap into it. They get their theology from Facebook or from their wives. They love tradition and religion, but the simple pursuit of Jesus, the desire for progressive holiness, the correction and admonition of Matthew 6:19-21 or James 4:7-10? To them those things are for the fundamentalists, the Bible-bangers, the church leaders. Hmmm, the church leaders. Those who lead others and not follow. Those who have purpose and direction and will. Those who are not driven by people and their beliefs but lead others in the things of God. They lead their wives, they lead their children, they lead their coworkers and their neighbors. They know the truth and follow it. As they do, they encourage others to follow it as well. They lead with knowledge and integrity. And the entire body of Christ is edified.

I looked at the limb above our young man's head. Bare and brown. Like the snow that had been tossed to and fro, churning and colliding franticly, there was nothing noble about it. No fruit, no growth. The wind had come in a frenzy and left behind nothing but a barren branch. As religion so often does. It carries away those who are not fixed, rooted in the Word of God, and leaves nothingness in its wake. The conclusion of Paul's very loooong sentence encourages us with the result of the effective work by each person doing their share, taking responsibility for their own growth: "growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." Purpose found only when individuals take responsibility.