By Allen White
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and
there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave
your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then
come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24
One summer on the way to church camp, my then girlfriend passed a
note to me. The note said basically, “It’s not you. It’s me. Can we just be
friends?” I had wondered why she didn’t want to sit next to me on the bus. I’m
very perceptive about these things.
At the next rest stop, I headed for the bathroom and, uh, donated
my breakfast from that morning. I wasn’t taking it very well, even though the
romance had lasted all of 30 days.
Once we got to camp, I was fully immersed in all of the activities
and church services. I plunged headfirst into the deep end of the divine. Who
needed a girlfriend anyway?
One evening following the service, I was kneeling at the altar in
the front of the Tabernacle. The building looked more like a barn with red,
yellow and orange shag carpet. But, it had a very spiritual sounding name.
I earnestly sought after God. And, God basically said to me,
“Buddy, you’re wasting your time. You need to go find the girl and make things
right.” You see in my quest to pursue God and leave her in the dust, I had been
slinging a little mud too.
I went outside and found her. I apologized. She cussed me out. I
went back to the Tabernacle to once again earnestly seek God feeling that I had
done my part to make things right and having confirmation that she was not the
girl for me.
How often are we at odds with others, then we think we can show up
to church and get our praise on? We might sing songs. We might get a little
emotional. But, in God’s ears, it’s just a bunch of noise. Our worship is
coming from our lips, but not from our hearts.
If you think about it, if the light of Christ doesn’t impact the
darkness of our souls, then there’s something really twisted about what we call
worship. Often we treat worship like the old bath soap commercial, “Calgon,
take me away.” But, before Jesus will take us away, He expects us to deal with
our stuff.
In this passage, Jesus paints a scenario where we have
offended someone. In Matthew 18, He teaches about handling situations when
someone else offends us (Matthew 18:15). Here’s the kicker: whether we offended
them or they offended us, Jesus instructs us to take the initiative toward
reconciliation in both scenarios.
“But, that’s not fair,” you protest. As I’ve written before,
you want better than “fair.” (BLOG REF).
Who are you at odds with right now? How is it interfering
with your worship? If it’s not, then be concerned about that too. It’s time to
take responsibility for your actions. It’s time to own up to your shortcomings,
regardless of theirs.
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