Church life can be a place of contrasts.  It can be the very best place to be and it can be a lousy place to be.  The puzzle is what makes the difference.  I think I can give at least part of the answer.

We all piled into the plane, and no sooner had we sat down the pilot informed us we couldn’t take off due to poor weather conditions at our destination.  Which fact he knew perfectly well before we got on.  And so we sat there for another hour, wondering why they couldn’t have left us in the departure lounge instead.

Waiting.  Who likes it?

It is a strange feeling here at the Bible College in Athens.  When you quote 1 or 2 Corinthians, you realize Corinth is just a couple hours drive away.  Same with Thessalonica.  Athens, where Paul confronted and began to destroy the fate-based civilization that controlled the thinking of the much of the ancient world, is just down the road.

Church is lots of things.  In one aspect it’s an army, in another sense a hospital, in yet another a school.  But above all, church is family.

Family is a wonderful thing, and none of us would ever want to lose it.  Family is the place of closest trust and relationship.  But the places of closest trust are also the places of deepest hurt.

That’s why we need to be so watchful about the health of the family of God.  Church is God’s family.  It should be the place of closest relationship, but when things go wrong people get hurt.  And badly.

Nothing in God’s economy ever goes to waste.

And if relationships are at the heart of that economy, then it is God’s heart to use the relationships he has given us for his purposes.

It is a tragedy when relationship breakdown occurs among Christians.  That applies in particular to marriages but also in a more general sense.  We can make light of church divisions and splits, but they must break God’s heart.