A pastor wrote me a series of messages beginning at the start of the pandemic up until recently to let me know what I was writing was causing problems in his church and his family. In one message, he said because I am no longer a pastor that, I should remain silent since I was out of touch with the issues pastors are having to face in this unusual time of social discord. I will admit the challenges pastors face today are unique to their context, but they are not unique at their core to any generation of pastors. They are simply problems dressed in different cultural clothing and expressed in different seasons of history.
At some point, after it became clear that a resolution of our differing opinions would not be achieved, I made a choice to move on. After that choice is made, any negative remnant still remaining in both our hearts would be revealed if we choose to continue arguing the points of our disagreement or made attempts to gain a following who agrees with our offense to force the silence and submission of the other party. There is only one way I have discovered that allows us to move on and remain spiritually and emotionally intact. That way is the way of prayer.
My prayer assignment after I choose to move on from any discordant situation is not to get someone to change how they see God’s Kingdom or get them to like me. My prayers are in the form of blessings over their family and their ministry. Those blessings are required of me if I want to prevent a root of bitterness from finding a place in my heart to mature and produce the kind of fruit that will destroy my spiritual life and any sensitivity I might have to the voice of the Spirit. It’s never about the value of our opinion. It is always about the condition of our hearts.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by yoshitaka2 from Pixabay
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