I spent three lovely years as the pastor of the Princeton and Mercer churches. 1991-1994. Wonderful people happy times. There was one woman in the church in Princeton that was always unhappy and it seemed to be directed at me. Whatever meeting we were at she was always there and always grouchy and it always seem to be aimed at me.
One day I decided I was done with it. I called her up and said I’d like to stop by. I drove out to her trailer. I went in and sat down. And I said "ma’am I’m trying to be a good pastor, I’m trying to be a good man. I feel like you’re always unhappy with me. Have I done something to hurt you? If I have done something wrong please forgive me."
She started crying like a baby. I started to cry. Turns out she has all sorts of pain in her life and it just was coming out in all sorts of ways that were destructive to relationships around her. I said a prayer, we hugged and I left. After that she was a different person.
It was the first step of a long journey for me to learn that often when people at the church were seemingly angry at me there was something going on in their life. It was about them, not me. The church and their pastor was just an easy target.
So if someone is being ugly to you and you can’t figure out what you did to them, just remember it may have more to do with them than it does with you. Just keep loving them because everybody needs to be loved, especially those who are grieving and hurting.
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I am leading a River Cruise to Belgium and the Netherlands March 19-27, 2022. If you are interested in reading about the trip or joining in, the link is below.
No comments:
Post a Comment