My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,
Colossians 2:2 (NIV)
What Paul Wants for Strangers
On the nights the gym is open, six or seven men past forty play basketball badly and laugh about it. The ball hits the rim flat, somebody yells, and the sound comes back off the block wall.
An hour of this is the best part of the week for most of them. Then they get their jackets and go. One of them has been sleeping in his brother’s spare room since March, and the others would be surprised to hear it. They have played together for four years and they call each other by last names.
Some of the people Paul is fighting for have never met him face to face, and the ones at Laodicea are in it with them. He says what he’s after for all of them. He wants them encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they’ll come into the full riches of complete understanding, and so that they’ll know the mystery of God, namely Christ. He wants the holding together to carry them all the way to knowing Christ.
So the men in the gym have something real and it stops at the parking lot. Paul is straining for something further in: people close enough that one of them notices the other is not sleeping at home. You can be well liked in a place for years and keep everything that matters about you out of the building, and nobody there is doing anything wrong. It just means the understanding Paul wanted for them hasn’t got anything to grow in yet.
On the way out one of them holds the door and asks the quiet one whether everything’s all right at his place. He says it is. Then he asks what time they’re playing on Thursday, and they work that out in the parking lot with their keys already in their hands.
A Prayer to Remember
I’m about to walk into a place where I’m liked and not known, Lord, and most of the time that arrangement suits me fine. Work on that while I’m standing there making small talk. Make me easy to tell the truth to, and slow to change the subject.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
