There’s a commercial in which a tattoo artist is tattooing another man and the tattoo artist is clearly making an error. The person being tattooed notices and points out the error. The tattoo artist then responds by saying “stay in your lane bro”. He is saying, know your role and stop telling me how to do my job.
In this particular instance the tattoo artist is clearly making an error and seeing as how the error is being made on the other gentleman’s arm the argument could be made that this is, very much, his lane as well.
However, sometimes we see that….”here, let me point out your error(s)” attitude when the person pointing out errors arm isn’t involved and it isn’t really even any of their business. This kind of behavior is pretty typical in the work place, because it’s not uncommon for people to feel like they look better if someone else looks worse. But we even see it in the church.
In the church, it’s typically aimed at the pastor and leader ship. People always have a better idea. They always have a suggestion. They always have an agenda. Very few of them ever say I have a leading or this is the word that God spoke to me about this particular situation. Primarily because it’s not about God. It’s about them.
Pastors and the leadership of the church aren’t the only people it happens to though. A lot of times we will nitpick each other over where or how the coffee station should be set up or over whether we should be doing bible studies out of books or the Bible or which type of worship music we should have. Our human flesh desires control. We want to be noticed we want people to see that we have authority and we don’t care who we hurt to get there.
The irony in these types of situations is that God has given each of us spiritual gifts and if we occupied ourselves by using our gifts and glorifying Him, we would be too busy to focus on the things that we complain about. But a lot of times we don’t want to use our gift we want somebody else’s.
Sometimes we don’t want to serve at all, we just want to critique how others serve and think that if we can get everyone to focus on where others are falling short or how what they are doing isn’t the right thing, no one will notice that we are doing NOTHING to contribute or bring praise and honor to God.
This is all the work of the enemy. It is his wily scheme, created to cause division in the body of Christ and to keep us focused on nonsense that has no eternal value whatsoever.
If you’ve been in the church for any length of time, you’ve seen it. You may have only gotten a glimpse of it, or you may have been deeply wounded by it and maybe it’s what’s keeping you out of church today.
We all need to be in church, part of a body of believers (not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25). We all need to be serving God, not where we want to, but where he gifted and intended for us to serve (For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10). We all need to stop the selfish, self centered living and love each other (“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.” James 4:1-2). We need to do our part, no matter what that looks like, to glorify God and advance the gospel (I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together. Psalm 34:1-3). And, we all need to stay in our lane. Today I pray that this would be our heart and that we would begin living out the gospel in love, honor and glory to God.
And, if and when you find yourself critiquing or maybe even coveting another person‘s gifts, I pray that you would remember who you once were, prior to coming to know Jesus, and appreciate how blessed you are to be used by God at all. I also pray that the Holy Spirit would be so unsettled within you That you would not find peace until you repented, righted the wrong that you committed and were moved back into right relationship with God and the person(s) you wronged. And, moving forward (to quote a commercial actor), “stay in your lane bro”.
If you’re not in church today because someone wouldn’t stay in their lane, and it caused division, and maybe you were even hurt by it, I pray right now that you would ask God for peace and that He would draw you into the body that He desires you to be a part of. I also pray that you would forgive as you’ve been forgiven, wholly and completely (Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32). Jesus’ desire is that we would be part of the body, being fed and cared for buy a good shepherd, that we would love each other as family and that we would collectively use our gifts to draw others to him (In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Matthew 5:16). Let’s put aside our own petty critiquing and fleshly desires. Let’s stop warring over where the coffee station is, whether we are studying books or the Bible, or what type of worship music we’re singing. Let’s love each other and whoever comes in the door, with the supernatural love of Jesus. Let’s sing with a worshipful heart regardless of what type of music we are singing. And let’s be a testimony to those in our midst who may not know Him. They get enough of the nitpicking and backstabbing in the world it’s the last thing they want to see when they walk through the doors of the church.
If you do not know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, I pray that you would go to our Life Preserver page and pray the prayer that is outlined there. If you do, you will not magically become a perfect person with a perfect life. You will become a person who still makes mistakes, but who is forgiven by the God who loved and created you and gave Himself as a sacrifice for you. He longs to have a relationship with you.
Once you have prayed that prayer, please reach out to me and let me know so that I can be in prayer for you and help you grow in your, knowledge of , and relationship with our precious Savior Jesus Christ.
Luv Ya,
