In the past week, I was entrusted to take care of a puppy from a friend. Walking the dog suddenly becomes one of my daily routines in the morning and in the evening. During this “routine exercise”, I had a chance to observe my neighborhood slowly. One of the neighboring houses was doing a home improvement. The owner of the house had someone come in to rebuild his stepped walkway between his driveway and his house entrance. The walkway was built using rocks instead of original concrete slabs. After a few days, the irregular shapes of the rocks were fitted perfectly by the hired hand, to form beautiful stone walls and steps. I was amazed how skillful the hired hand is, if you know how difficult it is to fit irregular shape of things together. In the building process, the worker has to dig a strong-enough foundation, to chisel out minor part of the stones, to apply cements to glue them together and finally maintains everything in straight line. This improvement project was quite fascinating. I believe for those who have such an experience would know what I am talking about.

Last Friday in our jointed small group meeting at FCON, we were discussing apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians. One of the verses caught most people’s attention is apostle Paul’s pleading:

I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel …我勸友阿爹和循都基，要在主裡同心‧我也求你這真實同負一軛的，幫助這兩個女人，因為他們在福音上曾與我一同勞苦‧ (Philippians 4:2-3a)

From Paul’s pleading, we can observe that serving hearts from Euodia and Syntyche were not questioned here. It is the “same mind in the Lord”, however, that is to be emphasized. The eagerness in serving combined with personal preference and working habit is sometimes similar to fit irregular shapes of objects together – It is very difficult without a lot of shaping work. Someone used a term “同工？同攻？(Co-working? Co-attacking?)” to describe the difficulty of co-working phenomenon observed nowadays . I think it is very lively.

In fact, finding a church that is perfectly fit to us is rare the case, if not impossible. It has been said that “There is no perfect church in this world, if you can find it please tell me and I will be glad to join that church. Of course, after I joined, the church would become imperfect.” In any church, certain tradition, styles, people, or programs, etc. may make us uncomfortable. However, it is God’s will that He wants us to fit together with one another. From church serving and co-working, we can learn how to listen, to react, and to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Apostle Peter encouraged us that we are like living stones,

“….. are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 你們來到主面前，也就像活石，被建造成為靈宮，作聖潔的祭司，藉著耶穌基督奉獻神所悅納的靈祭‧1 Peter 2:5”

Similarly, apostle Paul indicated to us that in Him, we are

“….. being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.你們也靠他同被建造成為神藉著聖靈居住的所在‧Ephesians 2:22”

My dear brothers and sisters, I admit that it is not easy to be built together because it requires personal commitment and sacrifices. However, in Christ, everything is possible. We just have to remember that He is the potter and we are His clay…..