Church

I read the following thought about church while reading Secrets in the Dark by Frederich Buechner:

"Our happiness is all mixed up with each other's happiness, our peace with each other's peace. Our own happiness, our own peace can never be complete until we find some way of sharing it with people who, the way things are now, have no happiness and know no peace. Jesus calls us to show this truth forth, live this truth forth. Be the light of the world, he says. Where there are dark places, be the light especially there. Be the salt of the earth. Bring out the true flavor of what it is to be alive truly. Be truly alive. Be life-givers to others. That is what Jesus tells the disciples to be. That is what Jesus tells his church, tells us, to be and do. Love each other. Heal the sick, he says. Raise the dead. Cleanse lepers. Cast out demons. That is what loving each other means. If the church is doing things like that, then it is being what Jesus told it to be. If it is not doing things like that--no matter how many other good and useful things it may be doing instead--then it is not being what Jesus told it to be. It is as simple as that."

I love the call here to be "life-givers to others." Are those who follow Jesus today living out these words as Jesus intended? Ask a person on the street and you will find that there are many other descriptions, none of which get close to "life-givers." I do believe that these same folks you talk with will see Jesus as one, but not so much those who claim to follow. May the church of today be full of life-givers. Frederick Buechner Church