November 27 - 3 John: Stay Put

"When you see something in another worthy of criticism, before you think further about that person's faults, resolve that your life will become an increasingly visible and humble demonstration of love.... As long as you hold on to a superior, critical spirit, you will not hear My voice.... What you hear without loving is not worth hearing.  Repent and listen." (66LL)

My heart was sinking, my body weary, my head in my hands, my ears overflowing.  Sitting at the dining table during this inane conversation, I was aware of God and His desire for me to stay put.  I was also aware of my desire to get up and move to the living room.  The dialogue was pointless, not really even a dialogue, just nonstop, misguided chatter.  I didn't expect there to be any interest in me or questions about what's going on in my life.  But, it was difficult being cut off and dismissed when I tried to enter the conversation with a question or a thought.  It wasn't intentional on her part - it was borne out of extreme insecurity, lack of self-awareness, and believing secondhand experience was enough to make her an expert.  And God continued to prompt me to stay put.

Judgments from my heart ran rampant, criticisms well-formed, justification felt.  My heart did not represent God's perfect love, but my misguided sense of justice and right.  God wanted me to stay, not for anything satisfactory that might occur for me, but that His love might someday be formed in me.  "Repent and listen to My Voice."

In 3 John, the Holy Spirit reiterates this in the scenario of the four personalities.  We are given only a little insight into the dynamics there which indicate a relationally messy church situation.  Crabb gives us an idea of what God is saying to us in the relational messes, dissatisfaction, disappointment, frustration, and pain we experience:

"If My life is in you, and it is, you are capable of loving well even when the cost is great...

• Be like John.  Walk in the truth - the truth that My Son gives you His life so you can live a new way, a way that includes loving well when others don't.
• Be like Gaius.  Concern yourself more with the well-being of others than your own, even when giving up self-protection entails imminent risk.
• Be like Demetrius.  Continue teaching truth wherever you have opportunity.  Don't be muffled by opposition.
• Don't be like Diotrephes.  Only MY Son belongs in first place.  Life does not come by filling yourself.  True life, what you most desire, comes when you empty yourself of pride.  My Spirit loves to fill the empty soul with divine life." (66LL)

So, I stayed put at the kitchen table - believing that Christ in me was teaching a new way to love regardless of the content of the conversation.