Devotional: Do It Yourself - Shaun Groves
I have a confession to make: I don't work well with others. Actually, it's not so much that I don't work well with them as much as it is I don't enjoy the work we do together.
Because collaboration requires compromise and compromise requires sacrifice and sacrifice means I won't get my way. I'll have to meet when it's convenient for you and that's not necessarily ideal for me. I'll have to sacrifice a line I'm in love with for one you think sings better. I'll have to write in a place that's foreign, where the lighting and smells and coffee and piano aren't mine. I'll have to craft a melody you can sing well and I can't. There are bound to be lyrics that don't sound like something I'd say, about things I may not care all that much about. I'll have to share the credit and the royalties and write your name beside mine at the top of the lyric sheet because the song will be ours and not mine.
So I just don't bother. I don't collaborate. At all.
Until Sunday comes.
An Inconvenient CommunitySunday comes and I'm thrust into the herd where our way usurps my way. We sing songs together, we discuss the Scriptures together, take communion together. We combine our offerings, share our worries and needs and triumphs. I won't be able to go anywhere or do anything all by myself, on my own terms, at my own convenience.
Even for a lone ranger like me Church is a place and a community where "I" and "you" ought not rule the day. "We" is king.
And this means having to face down all the boogiemen that keep me from co-writing. I have to recognize my need to be in control and exchange it for meekness, for leaning on others and believing God. I have to slay my perfectionistic tendencies and redefine success as being faithful, true, holy and in community. I have to yield, to sacrifice, to give and take and, most difficult for me, relax. I have to let you into my brain and my heart and my personal stuff and trust you not to make a bigger mess while you're in there.
And I don't want to.
Spiritual CollaborationPaul gives us this advice to people like me struggling with the art of spiritual collaboration called church: "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Philippians 2:4 NIV).
What I want, Paul seems to be saying, isn't at the top of God's priority list for Christian community. Instead, He requires me-whether I want to or not, whether it's my upbringing or not, whether I'm scared or not-bring all of me to all of you and make some things together called Church and faith and kingdom that I can't make on my own. There's no do-it-yourself way to know God and make God known. We need each other.
So what about you? What fear keeps you from true community? What is it you're not willing to give up? What non-essentials are you still insisting upon having your way? Are you trying to know God and make God known all by yourself? Where do you need help and what help can you lend to others in your faith community?
PRAYER: God, forgive me when I demand my way, when I'm stingy and self-absorbed and scared. I can't follow you on my own as well as I can with others. I know that. So, my Helper, surround me with a community that gives and takes from every area of my life, that loves You and me and the lost. Move my community to make demands of me and give me faith to rise to the occasion. For Your renown, amen.
To find out more about Shaun Groves, visit www.shaungroves.com.
