***James 3***
I have spent the last two days at a retreat/conference for first call pastors (pastors that are new to the profession). There are not many new Lutheran pastors, I am one of four in the Northern Texas - Northern Louisiana Synod.
Yesterday the four of us were sitting around and chatting about ministry. My colleagues all went to established congregations where people have been going for many years... I have a new congregation, a mission start that is ;ess than a year old.
As I talked about my congregation and all the amazing things that my members are doing I could see on their faces that they were... not jealous, but wishing their members would be more focused on mission, more focused on telling people about Jesus.
I then made the remark "Mission isn't hard, you just have to go do it."
I immediately realized how arrogant that sounded and apologized. Not every pastor is lucky enough to have the kind of people that go to Abiding Grace. Not every congregation is starting new and has people that are excited to grow. Some congregations are comfortable being who they are... and some pastors work for those congregations and pull their hair out trying to find ways to get their people to think big. I am lucky that I landed where I did.
But once the words were out of my mouth I couldn't take them back. We can never take back words once they are out of our mouths.
The problem with words is that they are seldom thought through before they come out. Especially when we are in a heated discussion.
But words have power... they can hurt worse than any punch or kick. They can break hearts and end relationships. They can cause pain that may be forgiven, but never forgotten.
And so often these words just fly out, without regard for the damage they might cause.
One thing we have talked aboout these past two days is taking the time to breathe deeply. Maybe we all need to learn to take deep breaths, especially when we are in heated conversations. Maybe an extra couple seconds will help us decide what we should say and shouldn't say.
I am reminded of a prayer that hangs at my sister's house...
"Lord, put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth. Amen."
Your blog reminds me of a sermon Dwight's Dad gave when we were about confirmation age. He squeezed out a huge glob of toothpaste and challenged us to get it back into the tube. Like our words of course we couldn't.
ReplyDeleteI may not be able to count to ten but I certainly should at least get to five before I speak.
I think that we (Abiding Grace)are everything that you say we are but that I feel that we've gotten where we are so quickly because we want to get as far away from where we were as we can.
I know that some people think that we are all healed. I would like to suggest that we are probably much more sensitive to what is said to us or not said because of the way words were used against us.
Just Breathe