Tender Loving Church

In recent weeks, a horrible virus swept through some of my family. It was one of those times you are sick where there’s not a name like strep, where you can easily pop some meds and it will all fade away quickly. Not to mention that I also had wrenched my neck taking wallpaper off the master bathroom we’re redoing. Yes, I along with my son, was a mess! It was several days of coping and wishing, “Can’t this hurry up and be over?” coupled with the cry, “I need someone to take care of me.”

During my downtime, I got to thinking. Doesn’t this attitude characterize so much of the world today? I see in people this wide range between barely handling & coping with life to crying out for love, attention, and tender care and topped off with the façade “I’m really fine.” People are so fiercely independent and want to make their own way but when life presents hard times, they are also crying out for tenderness, loving kindness, and support.

For sure, the world has been through the emotional wringer these past few years. Couple that with previous hurts, habits, failures, and searching for the meaning of life: it brews together for a serious recipe for people crying out in major need. It’s a lot and I feel it myself, navigating my own feelings post-Covid with any number of things to process in my own life. I know the answer is Christ and His love for us and I am still, at times, challenged. What if someone does not know this?

People need hope. They need care. They need a source of strength and guidance. They need to know their present circumstances can change and their future can be bright and productive. What’s the answer? Jesus Christ! Now, insert the Church of Jesus Christ. WE can help deliver the answer needed. Here is what the bible says about us:

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another (emphasis mine, Romans 12:3-5, ESV).

Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love (Ephesians 4:15-16).

The Body of Christ is uniquely qualified to bring healing to the world as it has been designed to operate in love. We have been graced with the fellowship of God’s Son leading us, and bringing us into understanding that we’re not alone. This is what so many people need. As the Church, we can bring that tender loving care to others who don’t know it. Not with arrogance, thinking we are better because we do know. With humility because we know the grace of God has sustained us.

How can we accomplish this? Remember the K.I.S.S method? Keep it simple. Right where we’re at, we need to open our hands and hearts to help someone in need. The funny thing is, people who are in need are all around us.

Simple ways to help can be doing something nice for your neighbor. Pay for someone’s bill or fee. Buy someone lunch. Offer to babysit for a tired Mom. Contact an old acquaintance you lost track of but, whom you’ve seen on social media, is struggling.

Remember, you are a unique part of the Body. God has gifted you to meet the needs of those you know and those who know you. Bear a burden for someone and we can be amazed how this can soften someone’s heart. Wait and see how hearts will open up to God’s love given freely through you.

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

Terry is a blog contributor who is thankful for her life in Jesus which fills her life with joy. For more from Terry click here. You can listen to any of our Bible studies by tuning in to your favorite radio station, listening to our podcasts on our website or iTunes, or listening through TuneIn, Stitcher, or Spotify online radio. You may also watch us on YouTube!