I thought I would spend the next
months sharing with you some insights that I have had with my experiences
working with individuals, families, and churches. These insights have come
about over the last 30 years of working in mental health clinics, teaching at
college, being a pastor of various churches mostly rural, and in supervising
other pastors and churches. I don’t know if any of these will be helpful in
your journey either as clergy or lay but I offer them to you. I originally
thought about doing this as a top ten list but realized as I was writing notes
that there is no definite order or priority to them. I hope to offer 3 a month
and then in the last month any final thoughts I have regarding my upcoming
retirement and journey of serving God and neighbor.
The very first idea I had was
the number of times both as a therapist and pastor people wanted to change the
behavior of someone else. Parents would come to me wanting me to change the
behavior of their children yet were unwilling to look at their own behavior.
The same can be said of churches that are wanting quick fixes that do not
require change on their own part. Paul in Romans 12:2 states, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.” In the
book “Canoeing the Mountains”, the author states that to be able to move
forward in life you first must transform yourself before any other
transformation can occur. My experience of working with families convinced me
that one cannot change the behavior of another only God can. One of my
professors in seminary would state we cannot save others, even ourselves. Only
Christ has that power. Yet, I often experienced people trying to change others
through pleading, begging, manipulation, fear, or coercion. None of these lead
to any lasting change or even in any change at all. To bring about change
requires the willingness to change the way we act, think, or believe. Paul is
right that for us to know God’s Will we need to be transformed.
A corollary to the above is
this. If you truly believe something, then be willing to act on it. In the
letter from James, “In the same way,
faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (2:17). My experience has been that
people with good intentions and beliefs will often wait for others to do
something or someone else to take charge or even bail them out. James reminds
us that unless we act than our faith is not evident to anyone else. Ghandi was
supposed to have said, “You must the change that you would like to see. “Jesus
puts it this way, “Do to others whatever you would like
them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the
prophets. (Matthew 7:12)” How often we let our judgments and bias focus us.
Today, it seems that more time is spent on denigrating others rather than
treating others like we would want to be treated. To live out our faith should
be to live as Christ-like as we can. There have been so many examples of such
treatment of others especially if one disagrees to even begin to count. Rather
than jumping on the bandwagon criticism, take time to think would you like to
be treated in the way others are being discounted for their beliefs?
A final thought for this month
is truth is not found on Facebook or Twitter. The talk of fake news prevails in
our society and social media is the greatest purveyor of fake news. As Pontius
Pilate asked of Jesus, “What is truth?” Jesus did not refer him to his Facebook
page or spend 140 characters to describe his version of truth. I sometimes
despair when I read what people repost from others. Regardless of right or
left, people seem to buy into others and not even express their own ideas. And
to top that off, spend no time fact checking the information which often is
lies and prejudiced opinions with no basis of reality. One cannot argue with
those who post such trivia as the above statements. Proverbs 26:4-5 says, “4Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or you will also be
like him. 5Answer
a fool as his folly deserves, That he not be wise in his own eyes.” Seemingly
contradicting statements, what is being conveyed is that there are times you
waste your time arguing about who is correct and then there are times to stand
up for your beliefs. Wisdom is knowing when to do what. Regardless, stand up
for your beliefs as founded on your informed interpretation of scripture, the traditions of the church,
your experiences that you have seen or learned, and most of all taking to time
to reason your thoughts and being open to continued learning.
Enough for this month. I will
continue to share my reflections of the life of a social worker, pastor, and
district superintendent next month.
Eldon
