Cancer and church life

"You have cancer," are some of the most horrific words that anyone can say to a person.

Friends have told me that when they hear those words, hundreds of negative thoughts go through their minds.

It is one of the most debilitating diseases of our day.

Cancer is made up of cells that don't want to go with the program.

They aren't connecting with the vision or mission of the body.

They have their own agenda.

Now, this would be just fine - if they would leave your body.

The problem with cancer is that these deviant cells still want to hang out in you.  They don't want to go anywhere.  They poison everything around them.  They want to be independent - and as a result they destroy the good cells in the body - and eventually kill a person if that person is not treated. 

Cancer cells still want blood, they still want to eat, and they still want oxygen because they want to grow. 

But what makes them even more horrific is that they not only want to grow, they want to spread and metastasize their negativity.

So, in other words, they want to siphon off the body, but the don't want to contribute to it.  And if they do contribute, their negativity destroys any positive work that they might do.

Four minus five equals a negative one kind of thing.

And ultimately, unless addressed radically, the whole body is in trouble, because they will kill the body.

In church life, people like this want the sermons, they want the songs, they want the ministry to them, they want events for their children, they want counseling for their problems, but they don't want to be a part of the body's direction and goals.

They just want to hang out in the body.  And complain.  And criticize.  And gossip.  And cause division.

My encouragement to you today is to become a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.

Just a thought for a Thursday.