Anyone who has attempted to master an art, like music, drawing, or sculpting, knows the basic elements have to be taught over and over again. I remember my longsuffering piano teacher repeating over and over, “Now, Elaine keep your wrists high, your fingers curved and light over the keys. And don’t slouch.” That was more than 40 years ago and only two years of lessons, but even today if I sit at a piano I will keep my wrist high, my fingers curved and light over the keys, and I never slouch. Why? Because Mrs. Cartwright repeated, both in word and in application, this essential hand and body position over and over during my lessons. She knew droopy wrists and heavy fingers hindered excellence in piano playing. And she should know; she was a master on any keyboard.
I didn’t stick with the piano lessons. I was convinced I should play the violin. That lasted six months. Then I was convinced I should play guitar. That lasted two lessons. I quit when I was informed I had to trim my fingernails. Pathetic, I know. What was my problem? I wasn’t willing to listen to instruction, implement needed changes, or do the hard work of repeating basic elements over and over again. I wanted to be a master musician with minimal practice and little change to my life. Needless to say, I have never mastered any instrument. Good intentions did little good. My choices determined the level of mastery or lack thereof I would experience in the music world.
Sometimes I have the same attitude when it comes to mastering the art of loving one another. I want to love, but I prefer to keep the lessons simple and the practice time short. After all, shouldn’t loving one another come naturally for me? Why do I have to practice? And why does it have to be so hard and time consuming? After all, I have a life to live and a schedule to keep. I don’t have time to master the art of loving my brothers and sisters in Christ. Bottom line, it has been my choice to be average Josephine One Another.
But God (there’s that phrase again) is never content in letting me be an average one another.
His goal is excellence in me and in you. Just like Mrs. Cartwright, He patiently repeats the lessons in basic one another living, but He doesn’t give me the option to quit. As long as He gives me breath, the lessons continue. In the past, I have chosen not to listen and not to practice, but the burden that came with that choice was always heavy and the cost too high. Finally, I’ve learned to not only listen to God’s lessons, but to pay special attention and take thorough notes, especially when He repeats Himself. In this book, we have been studying and applying the individual words and phrases from a time when our Master Teacher, Jesus, repeated Himself to His eleven closest students. It was His last earthly classroom in the Upper Room. It was a tender time and yet a time of confusion and uneasiness. Things were going to change, dramatically.
Discussion
- The scene of the Upper Room is documented in all four Gospels. What attitude is recorded in Luke 22:24?
- What similar attitude took place earlier in a conversation between two brothers and Jesus? Refer to Mark 10:35-45
- How might this attitude in the disciples hinder their execution of loving each other?
- What similar attitudes rob you of the blessing of loving and being loved by one anothers? How so?
One Another Living 