Love's pressures

Let me love without honour,
Let me serve without applause,
Let me suffer, no-one knowing,
Live for Jesus without praise.

Let me walk without turning,
Follow You, mocked and betrayed,
Pressing forward, hold the vision,
Many pressures, no complaints.

These are the words of a very deep and searching song we sometimes sing. The lyrics are based on something written by Watchman Nee, the Chinese Christian leader who suffered for his faith under the Communists.

The reason I’m posting them today? Well... there’s been a fair number of “pressures” on some of us recently. Some sickness, some over-tiredness. Ironically, the pressure on the core of our church household comes – largely – from the blessing we prayed for!

“Send us people, Lord,” we prayed. “Teenagers will come to us,” we prophesied. And He did, and they did. And we love them – truly, our new disciples are our “joy and our crown”.

Yet, with people come pressures and a number of our “house family” (those living in the community house) have been feeling the strain. We’ve needed to address how we can give the house family some “recharge space” in the midst of all the challenges of a busy schedule.

There’s a danger in this, though. “I can’t cope” was not a phrase found on the lips of Jesus. In the Spirit, we can, in fact, cope. Jesus “coped” by rising early and spending time communing with His Father in the hills. But He wasn’t very keen on the disciples’ “sensible” suggestion to stop “those annoying children” coming to Him for a blessing!

In the same way, White Stone’s house family need to recharge and draw on God and one another; they will need opportunities to do that and wise leadership will provide them while avoiding the flesh taking over and rejecting those the Father has given us.

Let us love, serve, suffer... all for Jesus.