Through Lattice Windows: The Mystery Of Sharing
"It is our natural inclination to share resources because it makes sense. "I'll share my chips with you if you share your chocolate with me." It's no good sitting with a barn full of oats and no water when your neighbour has a dam,'' declares Leanne Hunt in this inspirational column.
We also share skills. Someone knows how to programme a computer, for example, while someone else knows how to speak Russian. The two collaborate to devise a programme for translating text from one language into another, and society benefits.
Another kind of sharing is the passing on of stories. Because life is full of trials, people need encouragement. Sharing stories of heroes who have overcome terrible odds, or saints whose faith carried them through great hardship, strengthens the weak person and indirectly brings relief to the community.
More abstract still is sharing of emotions. Here, we tell each other what we feel and why. For example, a woman tells her husband that she is feeling neglected, in the hope that he will share his feelings too. This kind of sharing is difficult and best done in a considered, even planned way. It is a case of, If you're ready, we can share.
This brings us to sacrificial sharing. No longer is it about exchange, but of one person selflessly sharing the suffering of another. We see this in the archetypal picture of Christ hanging on a cross, but perhaps a little closer to home is the story of Jesus sharing in Peter's personal struggle with doubt and fear. The disciples and many other influential people had been discussing who Jesus really was. Was he Elijah? Was he John the Baptist returned from the dead? Peter was convinced that he was someone of great importance, but his mind refused to come up with a rational answer.
Eventually, desperate to articulate some sort of response, he blurted, "You are the Christ of God!" Joy flooded his soul as he recognised the rightness of his words.
A moment later, however, he was reeling under the conviction that he had said a terrible thing, been possessed by the devil, and must certainly be rejected from the group of disciples. Yet Jesus kept him close.
Eight days later, while praying on top of a mountain with Jesus and two of the other disciples, Peter sensed a cloud coming down around him and saw Jesus walking in a bright light with Moses and Elijah. To increase the drama, God's voice boomed out from heaven, declaring that Jesus was indeed his Son, the Christ of God. The experience so affected Peter that he wanted to start building shelters for the visitors, a sure sign that his energy level had been dramatically increased. More notable, though, was Jesus' response. He began speaking forcefully about his death in Jerusalem.
I suggest that, after witnessing the change that came over Peter when he blurted his truth, Jesus himself felt greatly encouraged. If this man could be transformed from a bumbling fisherman into a powerful witness, risking rejection and death for the sin of blasphemy, imagine if a whole generation were to express the hidden knowledge which God had placed in each one of their hearts! Not dogmatic knowledge, of course, but knowledge seeded by the Holy Spirit and grown too big to contain.
And herein lies the mystery: Though we learn the habit of sharing by exchanging resources, skills, stories and feelings in expectation of an appropriate return, sharing in another's long walk to freedom ultimately becomes the reward itself. Through sacrificing our time and energy, we gain a share in eternal life.
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