Looking Past the Rubbish

One of the great tragedies in church work is the inability of some to look past the rubbish. They complain about every thing that is wrong with the church. It takes a great deal of prayer and focus to keep your eyes on the prize, which is Jesus Christ. If only God’s people could see things the way the Russian man did in this story by Michael Blakely:

“While I was attending graduate school in the early 1980s, I stopped for coffee in a Malibu, California, restaurant. Coming from a nonpolitical family, I knew nothing of political activists--but I met one that day in that restaurant.
He told everyone what a mess the United States had become. He ridiculed our government and our educational, industrial, and banking systems. He was on such a roll that he had everyone on his side except for two people: an old man and me. The activist shied away from me, seeing my Pepperdine hat, Ronald Reagan T-shirt, and Wall Street Journal. So he went after the old man.
As he approached, the old man continued slurping his soup and turned his back. The activist sat down at the old man's table and offered, "Mister, if you can tell me just one thing the United States has ever done for you, just one measly thing, I will leave you alone."
Finally, the old man looked up. He licked his spoon clean and set it down on the table. His red face indicated years of laboring in the sun. With a heavy Russian accent, he replied, "Ve hold zees truz to be self-evident, dat all men created equal, life, liberty, perzuit of happiness." Then he went back to the soup. The activist, defeated, could not argue against what the old man had experienced on both sides of Communism.”

We can all find something that is wrong, but it takes maturity to look for the things that are good and use them to build the kingdom of God.


Turn your eyes upon Jesus and the rubbish that you see all around will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.