Keeping going
Starting something is one thing, but keeping going is quite another. How easy for some bright idea to lose all its excitement and lustre in the day-to-day grind of trying to make it happen - a new product, a new service, a new living room. Often it isn't the starting that's the problem, it's the continuing.
There's no doubt about the Colossians' joy and excitement at receiving Christ. But Paul's letter was written to encourage them to continue in Christ. It seems that they were finding it tough.
It isn't easy to understand exactly why the Colossians were faltering. But Paul has described Jesus in terms that must have astounded and challenged all who heard (1:15-20) - the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, the co-creator. So perhaps the Colossians had lost sight of the absolute centrality of Christ, the ascended Lord, in whom all the fullness of God dwells. Perhaps they were getting tied up in knots about religious observance (2:16-23), or were allowing the ways of the world around them to influence them too much (2:8).
Why do we often find that Jesus has slipped into the periphery of our lives? What stops us making him the only reference point and the only springboard of action in the way we work, the way we spend money, the way we relate to others? Is it that he simply doesn't matter enough to us? Is it that we allow contemporary attitudes to dilute our commitment to him?
Continuing means being rooted in him, so when we start a conversation, a phone call or an email, do we pray before such tasks that he will give us the power to see with new eyes and respond in a Christ-like way? Continuing means being built up in him, so do we share our lives with one or two close friends to whom we are accountable for our Christian growth? Like the Colossians we need reminding that to continue living in Jesus day by day means living in a completely different way - 'buried with him in baptism and raised with him... in the power of God' (2:12).
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