by Pastor Douglas Brauner
Different to Make a Difference
Sometimes it’s what we don’t see that tells a photograph’s story.
Welcome back to Wild Horse, Colorado, a mostly abandoned city on the eastern high plains, a community that has more in common with Kansas than the populated areas of Colorado.
The old Wild Horse school is well preserved and serves as a gathering place for those who call this area home. It is a place of activities and meetings, and from the look of the build and from the activities that happen here, you might believe that homes and businesses surround it.
What you don’t see in this photograph is that most of these buildings are decaying. They have no paint, roofs are collapsing, even some walls have fallen. There is a post office and at least one inhabited residence, but nothing else.
This beautiful school exists in world of decay.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:4-5 English Standard Version
There is an important relationship between looking different and being different. The church is called to be both. The church exists in a wasteland of sin and death. And in that wasteland, we hear Peter remind us that we are (by the mercy of God in Jesus) being formed into a spiritual house. Maybe even a living schoolhouse on the eastern high plains.
Because this is a work of God, we are different.
Because this is a work of God, we make a difference.
We are different and make a difference when we remember that we are a holy priesthood who serves others. We plead to God on behalf of his people.
We are different and make a difference when we remember that we are called to offer spiritual sacrifices, sacrifices of praise and love, through Jesus.
God’s grace makes us different. So, we can be confident that we WILL also make a difference until Jesus returns.
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado