“Egg-Shell Christians”

“When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, ³⁵ and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” ³⁷ He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:34-40

“You have sometimes heard it said of people that “they have to be handled like eggs”; eggs must be handled carefully, or you are likely to break them. Some people are super-sensitive: you have to be very careful what you do or say, or they will be hurt or offended…Sometimes people can bear to hear others ridiculed or talked about in a gossiping way, or see them slighted, and think nothing of it or even be amused; but when they themselves become the target for such things, it almost kills them, or at least they feel almost killed. What makes this great difference in their feelings? Why do they feel for themselves so much more than they do for others? Trace the feeling back to its origin, and you will find that their self-love is the thing that has been hurt. If they loved others as they love themselves, they would feel just as much hurt by that which was directed against the other as by that which was directed at themselves. It is self-love that makes people easily offended and easily wounded; and the more self-love they have, the easier they are hurt and the quicker their resentment is aroused. Self-love begets vanity; it quivers in keenest anguish at a sneer or a scornful smile; it is distressed by even a fancied slight. Self-love throws the nerves of sensation all out to the surface and makes them hyper-sensitive, and so the person feels everything keenly. He is constantly smarting under a sense of injustice. He feels he is constantly being mistreated. Oh, this self-love! How many pains it brings! how many slights it sees! how often it is offended! Reader, are you a victim of self-love? If you are so sensitive, always being wounded and offended, self-love is what is the trouble. If you will get rid of this self-love, you will be rid of that morbid sensitiveness; that is, you will get rid of that morbid sensitiveness that makes people have to be so careful with you.” (C.W. Naylor, “Heart Talks”, p. 46)

If we are looking for slights by other people we shall see plenty of them—even where none were intended. If we are expecting to be wounded by someone’s words, we shall receive them even when no one intends to wound us. Self-love, or better said “self-sensitivity” has a great imagination. It can see a great many evils, it can hear a great many slights, and it can be offended by many a comment where none existed and none was intended. It is like a petulant and spoiled child. They are truly “lovers of their own selves.” Paul said, “When I became a man, I put away childish things.” It is high time that we, as Christians, start doing the same thing. Suppose Christ had been as sensitive as so many people are today, would he have saved the world? If Paul had been an “egg-shell”, would he have endured the persecution and dangers and tribulations and misrepresentations that he bore to carry the gospel to the world?

Look, we are to learn to love ourselves if we are to love others. However, loving ourselves is not supposed to lead us to being so sensitive. We should look for opportunities to serve others, not to spend our lives looking for slights. We are called to love G-d and others with the intensity that we love ourselves – but not allow self-love to mire us in negative emotions. The secret is to love G-d with all our heart, mind and strength, and to love the others in our lives just as Christ loved others more than he loved himself; therefore he could endure all things for the sake of the world, so that all people might be saved.

Pastor Dave

“The Practical Side Of Religion”

“I have concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they live, and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil, for these things are a gift from God.” Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 

“The Christian life is preeminently a life of service. That is its highest and broadest purpose. To try to be a Christian merely for the joy that is to be found in it is often to render ourselves miserable. Idealism has its place in life, but it must not close our eyes to the practical side of life. Learn to enjoy the toil. Learn to find the sweetness that is in it. Learn to find the beauty in the common things of life, for some of the most common things are among the most beautiful when our eyes are taught to see their beauty. To seek happiness for ourselves as the chief end of life is a very unworthy purpose, and is one that can but end in disappointment. See that you do your part in life in the every-day things, and God will permit you to live on the mountain as he sees best. Appreciate the mountain experiences when they come, but do not let them make you despise the common things.” (C.W. Naylor, “Heart Talks”, p. 184)

There is a practical side to all things – and all things practical do not bring to us glamour or recognition. In the church, there is plenty that happens that few people notice, few people think about, and few people even care that someone is doing it. They just expect that it will be done, and there will be hell to pay if someone forgets. These things do not bring anyone glory – but they do bring satisfaction that it is done for the comfort or the necessity of a job well done. For example, someone needs to vacuum the Nave and make sure the heat or air conditioning is scheduled to come on before the services.

Not everyone is called to preach – not everyone is called to play the organ, the guitar or the piano for worship. But for the church to function, there is a weekly grind that happens so the bulletin is done, the altar is prepared, and the coffee hour is staffed.

Just because the work does not bring recognition does not mean that G-d does not see the joy that people feel for doing the little things, the uninteresting things, and the drudgery of church-life. The same is true in our daily, secular lives. G-d blesses those practical Christians, people who are willing to do the work even if it means weariness, or a lack of emotion, and especially if it requires sacrifice. Just because our faithfulness seems to fall upon blind eyes, our Lord sees all that we do, for the glory of G-d, and for the practical side of life – and the Lord blesses us for it. As the writer of Ecclesiastes states: “…everyone should find enjoyment in all his toil, for these things are a gift from God.”

Pastor Dave