Pit Pastor #8: Disconnect
By: Troy Wong
08/29/07

It's term when someone doesn't fully get it. There's a disconnect. When I was a community college teacher, one student rarely came to class (attendance was a portion of the grade), missed every quiz, and missed the final. I gave him an F. He came to challenge the grade (I actually didn't recognize him since I never saw him!), I explained why he deserved an F. He looked at me and said, “It's because I'm (he said his ethnicity) isn't it? We're always being held back.” He was clueless about the connection between his performance (or lack thereof) and his grade. Major disconnect.

In Cambodia we were visiting a royal palace. Inside were many shrines that people were praying to. Two young girls, maybe sisters, probably about 12 and 13 years old got on their knees and prayed to an altar right by where we were standing. They were down there about a minute & they looked very devout. They got up, walked by our group and tried to pickpocket one of our team members. I stopped them. Seems to me there was a disconnect between their religion and their thievery that these girls didn't see.

It happens with us too. Last Sunday I was visiting a local church. In front of me was a husband and wife, he was wearing a Skin Industries shirt. As with all Skin Industries stuff there was a silhouette of an un-natural, surgically enhanced, sexualized woman. By the way he worshipped and studied the Bible, I'm pretty sure he was a Christian. In my opinion there was some kind of disconnect going on there.

There's a couple funny thing about disconnects. The first one is that we usually don't see our own. My student thought I was trying to keep all people of his race down. The Cambodian girls saw easy money. My brother-in-Christ feels good when he wears that t-shirt. The second thing is we're usually blind to our own. I'd mention some of mine, but I don't see them as readily as I see others. You're probably the same way. (Matthew 7.2-5)

I suppose this is why God created the church -- the body of Christ, the fellowship, the gathering. I need brothers and sisters to point out my disconnects. I need them to hear my confessions. I need them to minister grace and mercy to me. It's no wonder that when we get connected to a church we get connected to ourselves and the God.

Thanks for reading. Shalom