United with Christ

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." II Corinthians 5:17

As noted in the previous blog, to be "in Christ" means to be united with Christ. What does it mean to be united with Christ? I am learning that it means to be conscious of and obedient to the Christ voice speaking to the consciousness of each one of us.

The Christ voice is always present, but we often don't hear it because of all the other noise and distractions in our thought. I often think of this as like the experience that Elijah had when he was listening for direction from God. The Bible tells us in I Kings that Elijah went up on a mountain and experienced a strong wind, a violent earthquake, and a fire - but God was not in any of these. Then, as Elijah continued to listen expectantly he heard a "still small voice" or as one translation puts it, "a low whisper". This was the voice of God or the Christ, speaking to man hundreds of years before the advent of Jesus.

I had an experience a few years ago that illustrated the benefits of listening to and obeying the Christ. My wife had made an appointment at a car wash to have our car specially cleaned and hand-waxed. She then called back and changed the appointment to a day later. When my wife and I went to the car wash on the day of the appointment, the owner was very unfriendly and said we were supposed to have come the day before. She explained that she had changed the appointment, but he wasn't interested in explanations. He lost his temper and began yelling so we left.


I was very angry and agitated by this man's behavior. As I left, the thought "be a peacemaker" came to me. This was the Christ speaking to me, but I ignored it and let angry thoughts occupy my consciousness. Over the next hour the thought "be a peacemaker" kept coming back. I was uncomfortable and unhappy with the agitated thoughts I had been entertaining and finally realized that I had to listen to this message of peace. I knew that world peace couldn't happen without individuals seeking peace in their everyday lives. But how could I feel at peace about the man at the car wash?


I stopped what I was doing and asked God to show me how to find peace. Next, the thought came that this man was God's idea and therefore must really be a good person. I asked myself "wouldn't it be nice to really know him, to be a friend of his?" I thought about his car wash and how I had noticed when I drove up that it was carefully maintained, neat, and orderly. These qualities were evidence of the goodness this man really represented. As I thought about other qualities that a man of God's creating must have, I found I really did want to be his friend.


The desire to be a friend caused all my anger to drain away and I felt a satisfying peace of mind. About 15 minutes later the phone rang. It was the man at the car wash. He apologized for the incident and said he could work on our car today. I thanked him and explained that I couldn't bring him the car because my wife had taken it to work. Immediately he said, "That's ok, I was going to offer to come get the car and to bring it back." He then called my wife, apologized to her, and arranged to pick up the car. Not only was this situation resolved, but I witnessed more of this man's God-given qualities in the conscientious and thorough treatment he gave our car.


This experience taught me an important lesson. The Christ message to "be a peacemaker" was there immediately when the trouble started, but I had to listen to and obey the message and embrace it in my heart before results were seen. Only after I finally obeyed the Christ did the man call, because only then was I ready to accept peace.