Last night in Church Pastor Marla spoke of the difficulty that she and her husband have had in business. She spoke on Righteousness, what it means, what it looks like how it manifests in her life.
I won't outline it here. It was excellent.
It was transparent. It was open. Unassuming. Real. Painful.
In my life I have had a few mentor relationships that have carried me thru difficult times. After I was saved I developed a deep enduring relationship with Pastor Dan. Till the day he died. I was close to Pastor Schmidgall, till the day he died. To this day I watch the extended family of Pastor Don Lyon and watch them live life in Jesus.
All of these great men of God in my life have had one thing in common. Pain. They never hid it. They never pretended to be something other than what they were.
The transparency they showed didn't make me think less of them, it let me see the life of faith walked out every day. A pattern for me to follow.
In the IPHC fellowship is Ron Carpenter Jr. A large church. I watch him on TV when I can. He is as transparent as anyone I have ever seen. If I lived near him I would attend his church. His transparency attracts me.
When I was training to become a Pastor (a failed attempt, I am NOT a Pastor, I am a Prophet) one of the admonitions given in literature and in counsel was to remain nontransparent. Be careful what you share with people. They will judge you for your weakness. Some of that is true. The ability to mark who can hurt you is important. Paul the Apostle said we should mark them. But, for me, the transparency,the tears, the joys, the failure, the victory, the gains, the losses and YET Jesus is Lord in all of that gives me great assurance. Even as I was called up to the Platform to share a word, I did so in tears. Pain. And the people received assurance of the goodness of God. A word given in tears destroys pretense.
Peggy reminded me that we are that transparent life lived out in front of others. That we are the ones who by our lives say "follow me as I follow Jesus". That people watch us and are modeling their lives by what they see us say and do. How we live our lives.
Part of me wants to say no. Part of me wants to say I'm not worthy. Don't follow me, My life isn't that together.
Then I look at Pastor Dan, Pastor Schmidgall, Pastor Lyon, Pastor Marla and many other good men and women of God I admire and with confidence can say to those to watch my life as I have watched their living epistle:
FOLLOW ME AS I FOLLOW JESUS.
And I will be transparent. It's hard. But it's essential. People are watching.
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