Brooklyn and I had fun building this tensegrity table kit where the parts don’t touch except for the string going in between them and yet can support a good bit of weight.
Sometimes tension helps. Maybe that doesn’t sound possible in your life, but it is. Jesus often dealt with the tension between those trying to genuinely follow Him and those trying to just look good on the outside, to “hold themselves up” by their own ego and status. Everyone involved had a chance to grow. So do we when we are struggling with that sort of tension.
In Matthew 23:5-7, Jesus says this about the scribes and Pharisees, the religious rulers of that day who sadly cared more about looking right than actually being right: “But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.”
Status. Appearance. Image. Recognition. But ultimately failure.
We don’t have to be perfect for Jesus to hold us up and hold us together, but we do need to be humble enough to recognize our need and turn to Him.
It’s not about looking right. It’s about letting Jesus grow us a little more like Him each day. That’s hope that can hold us up and hold us together.