HELP, PRIDE IS MUTILATING THE BODY OF CHRIST!

Kunle Lagunju, Coordinator,
One Spirit Club

 "Now pause, dear reader and ponder that. Ever seen a mutilated body before? It’s the most helpless thing you can ever imagine. If you’ve never seen one, I pray you never have to, but can you please imagine it? No matter how much muscular an arm is, its useless severed from the body! Think of the head, which houses the brain and the tools for four of the five senses, sight, taste, sound and smell. Severed from the rest of the body, what can it do?"

Kunle Lagunju is a Spirit-filled businessman with current core focus in cleaning and property. I can boldly declare that he is one of the few, but growing number of Christian men and women doing exploit for God in their businesses.

But that is a story for another day. Apart from the cleaning and property businesses, Kunle coordinates a vibrant church unity ministry dominated by youths known as One Spirit Club. I am a member, (one who needs to get better!), and so I sometimes get to interface with the group both on facebook and via blackberry messenger. It is to materials posted on both sites that I owe the thoughts I am sharing here today.

First, let me state that I consider lack of unity as one of the greatest drawbacks to Christianity, its growth, it health, its relative strength and most importantly, the divine plan. That is why, apart from my calling to men’s ministry, I consider the pursuit of church unity as one of my life’s work. That’s why most everything I do is non-denominational or multi-denominational. That is why I have a mini-book in print titled One Church, the first 1,000copies of which was given out free and which is available free on-line at kpbooksnigeria.com/products/onechurch. That is why I am thankful to Pastor Paul Adams for involving me in his Sonship Unity Foundation, another church unity ministry. That is also why I have The One Church campaign as one of the outreach arms of KINGDOMPeople, the non-denominational magazine I serve as Editor-in-Chief.

So, you can therefore understand why the posts I am about to talk about had so much impact on me that I wish to share them.

The first reads: "You will not understand why Jesus prayed for the oneness of the Body until you see the helplessness of a mutilated human body."

Now pause, dear reader and ponder that. Ever seen a mutilated body before? It’s the most helpless thing you can ever imagine. If you’ve never seen one, I pray you never have to, but can you please imagine it? No matter how much muscular an arm is, its useless severed from the body! Think of the head, which houses the brain and the tools for four of the five senses, sight, taste, sound and smell. Severed from the rest of the body, what can it do?

Wisely, Jesus prayed to the Father in the book of John: “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are…That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (17:11, 21).

But, what do we have today, most of us are going about, as if determined that the Lord Jesus’ prayer must go unanswered. The question is why? Why do people who preach love and unity in their congregation work against it in the kingdom?

One of the answers, if not the answer can be found in the next post which reads:

“A young lady was waiting for her flight in the boarding room of a big airport. As she would need to wait many hours, she decided to buy a book to spend her time. She also bought a packet of cookies. She sat down in an armchair, in the VIP room of the airport, to rest and read in peace. Beside the armchair where the packet of cookies lay, a man sat down in the next seat, opened his magazine and started reading.  When she took out the first cookie, the man took one also.

"She felt irritated but said nothing. She just thought: “What a nerve! If I was in the mood I would punch him for daring!” For each cookie she took, the man took one too. This was infuriating her but she didn’t want to cause a scene. When only one cookie remained, she thought: “ah... What would this abusive man do now?” Then, the man, taking the last cookie, divided it into half, giving her one half. Ah! That was too much! She was much too angry now! In a huff, she insulted the man, took her book, her things and stormed out to the boarding place. When she sat down in her seat, inside the plane, she looked into her bag to take her eye glasses, and, to her surprise, her packet of cookies was there, untouched, unopened! She felt so ashamed!! She realized that she was wrong... She had forgotten that her cookies were kept in her bag. The man had divided his cookies with her, without feeling angered or bitter...while she had been very angry, thinking that she was dividing her cookies with him. And now there was no chance to explain herself...nor to apologize.”

Now, there are so many lessons to learn from the story, not least of which is kindness. But the one that struck me and has stayed with me all week is that of humility. The lady was so secure in her “knowledge” that she had her cookie right beside her, as she relaxed. She was convinced that the man, who was sharing the cookies was wrong and that she is right, after all she bought and owned the packet of cookies. Until she discovered she knew wrongly… that the man was right and she was wrong!

Like the lady, each wing of the church today seems very sure that our cookie pack is right beside us on the stool; that we have a right to the cookies in the packet; that the other party is wrong and we are right. Like the lady, we disdain those in “error”. We even do worse. Like Saul before his conversion, we “jail” and “maim” those in “error” from our pulpits at every opportunity. We warn our members not to have anything to do with them. And I thought the Bible says “we know in part…”(1 Corinthians 13:9). The word for what most of us, leaders and the led, are doing, is PRIDE, I think; it’s mutilating the Body of the Lord Jesus, and working against the divine plan. (You can subscribe to this weblog; enter your email address in the space "subscribe to" upper right side of the page. Comments also welcome).