Merging: When Different Roads Meet

Driving can be such an exasperating mission these days. Millions of people running around going from place to place with only themselves in mind. Their own journeys and destinations in front of them. One of the scariest of all driving experiences I have on a daily basis is a section of the freeway where cars are merging onto one freeway and less than ten cars lengths later there is an exit to merge onto a different freeway. Some cars want to stay on the freeway they are on. Some cars need to get over to merge onto that freeway while others want to get off that freeway and exit onto the other freeway. All of this needs to happen at the same time. And no matter what day or time it is, it seems to be a very challenging task.

 

The other day I was once again faced with that point in my drive, and I became frustrated by how it can be so difficult to make that happen every single day. I mean if people would just pay attention and drive with their eyes open it shouldn’t be so hard, right? I often become irritated as people pay no attention to the fact that I am trying to slow down or speed up to make room for them. They tend to complicate it by slowing down and trying to get over into the side of my car or racing up and cutting someone off three cars ahead of me when I had left them plenty of room to join the party.

 

You also get the many who think that if they are already on the freeway then it is the job of the person entering to figure it out for themselves how to get over. Or it is simply their tough luck if they end up having to get off on the wrong freeway. Then I thought about it and realized what it really takes to merge well. It is all of the participating people keeping their eyes up and looking to what is both ahead and behind them so they can successfully merge together without colliding. (Oh, and using a blinker to help communicate what you are intending to do is also helpful.) But by law aren’t those that are on the freeway supposed to get over and make room?

 

Isn’t that where we go wrong as a church? We make such a mess when we merge together as one body. People coming from different places with different paths they have been on; some chosen and some not. But all with stories that have brought them to this place where all these different roads meet and you can either successful merge together or force someone off onto another freeway. Sometimes it is because we are not willing to make room for someone else. Especially someone too “dumb” to figure out how the freeway works. Hmm? (Oh come on! You’ve thought it before, too.)

 

Sometimes it is because we refuse to look back and remember where we came from. At some point we too had to merge on in order to get there. We forget that once upon a time someone let us in. We think that the person who is just entering should be up to speed with the new freeway from the moment they enter. We think, “Man, they drive too slowly.” Or, “Gosh, they just seem to want to run people over and cut across six lanes of traffic. Don’t they know how long I have been here trying to get to the same place?” And suddenly it becomes a competition. We forget that none of us deserve to be there. We didn’t create the freeway and we sure don’t own it.

 

Being the church can be such an exasperating mission these days. So how then do we successfully merge? How then do we expect to be one body that avoids collisions especially when some seem to provoke them? Do we need to look both in front of ourselves and behind? Do we need to keep others in mind? I think it starts with remembering who made two groups into one new humanity. Who destroyed the barrier and the dividing wall of hostility? Who reconciled all to God through the cross? Who is our peace and through who do we all have access? “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5:18-19)

 

Therefore, we must remember we are ministers of reconciliation. “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.” (2 Cor. 5:16)  We get to be a place not of tolerance but of love. We get to make room for our brothers and sisters and not regard them as the world does but be the place where all social distinctions are rendered irrelevant. A place where Asian, Caucasian, Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, gay, straight, male, and female are no longer foreigners and strangers but fellow citizens. Members of His household. “In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His spirit.” (Eph. 2:21-22)

 

So Go! Be ambassadors. Be ministers of reconciliation. Make room and merge well and think of others as Christ thinks of you. While you were once a slave you are now an heir.  A son or daughter of the most high. You have a new identity. Remember at some point you had to merge on in order to get there. Once upon a time someone let you in. So, let us make room and be ONE and, “Make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” (2 Cor. 5:9)