Stand!

In the Men’s Breakfast we are going through a series of Sitting, Walking & Standing and this time it’s about Standing. I always thought stand means standing firm as it is written in Ephesians 6 concerning The Armor of God:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. … Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth…

Ephesians 6:10-11, 13-14

Paul uses “stand” 4 times in this passage to show the importance of standing. And there are tonnes of examples in the Bible that describe what standing firm means, like in the book of Daniel etc. Interesting enough the first thing that the guy who did the sharing said was stand by, or stand with, somebody. The sharing reminded me an experience I had with Jeremy in our final year at university.

I remember it was February time, we happened to study the same module that term which was a bit weird considering we were doing different course and we were in different year group (he was in his 3^rd while I was in my 4^th year). But apart from those two hours of lecture per week, we hardly see each other. I wasn’t involved in International Ministry as much as I used to be, only Globe I was still serving, while it was the only event that Jeremy decided to stop going. I stopped going to CU for a bit because of some reasons, and we both went to different churches! We used to see each other at least 3 times a week for International stuff but at that moment it seems we were just on different planets! One day after lecture we had a brief chat and decided we had to meet up for some man chat on Saturday as it was the only time we were both free.

We met up at a local pub, had some steak for dinner, with a pint of beer in our hands (standard!) and we chatted! I couldn’t stop telling him how frustrated I was with my dissertation. My dissertation topic was about computer programming for robots. In my opinion, it was boring! I had to spend hours and hours to understand what the monkey it was all about, and couldn’t understand it. Once I started to understand the theory and wanted to do some practical bits – writing programs, it didn’t work! I mean what robots and computers do are to do exactly what you tell them to do, and it wasn’t the case! I was stuck in one part of the program, which was the most important part of all, for 6 weeks, after spending at least 30 hours on it! I wasn’t particularly happy with my supervisor at the point because I didn’t think he was helping me, and there were a lot of stuff happening too at the same time. Anyways you can imagine what it was like for me to be able to express all my feelings over the table. I was so thankful that Jeremy just sat there listening to all that, and that was exactly what I needed – just listen. I actually felt a lot better after lavishing all out even though the problems were still there!

After I calmed myself down a bit, I started to ask Jeremy how he was doing. From that point onwards the table completely changed. Being the listener and responder before, Jeremy became the one who lavished everything out, and I became the listener instead. It was very interesting that we both struggled with something, but different area of our lives; and because of these differences we had, we actually could encourage each other and pray together for His comfort even though we were broken inside somehow. I didn’t realise this until I walked home by myself that night, that we could actually stand by someone knowing that we are broken and in need at the same time. We are interdependent of each other!

There is a wonderful picture in the early church in Acts 4 that at one point there was no needy person in church.

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Acts 4:34-35

This is the picture that we normally have: wealthy people sold everything they had and gave them to the poor. I believe it is the correct description why there was no needy person among them. However I also believe there is something deeper than that. The picture we have above describes some givers and some receivers, the rich and the poor, by wealth. However I believe everyone is both giver and receiver, like me and Jeremy’s experience. Church shouldn’t just encourage the rich to give more, but also encourage the poor that there is someone in them can be offered too, not materialist stuff but characters and experiences. God made every single person special in His own unique way, and there is always something we can learn from one another even though none of us is perfect (not even close!) because we all are made in the image of God; and since we are made in God’s image it also means we inherit His character and even we are sinful from the core of our hearts, we are the reflection of His own character. We are dependent of God and interdependent to one another, and only this idea is understood, the Church will never be the Bride that fully reflects her beauty.


P.S. miss you bro!

26.10.2012
Oxford