Sis. Rhoni reminded me a couple of weeks ago of something I had written and it's been on my mind ever since. I am posting it in part, with a few minor changes...literary license you know.
I pray someone is blessed by it...
[I]Picture it…a pastor working in the churchyard, cutting the grass and pruning hedges.
Suddenly he sees a peculiar thing…a rabbit with what appears to be two antennas near the tail. Just as suddenly as the animal appears, he is gone.
A few minutes later the pastor’s teenage son runs from around the church, and asks, “Dad, did you see that rabbit with the blow darts stuck in it?” Not knowing where it went, they continue to work.
After a few minutes the rabbit runs past them again, and this time they try to catch it, hoping to free the distressed animal of the darts.
Unable in their efforts, they continue with the job at hand.
The next morning, as they are preparing for service, the teen asks his dad, “Do you know why we couldn’t help that rabbit, dad? Because he didn’t trust us!!”
When the pastor preached that morning, he related this incident and spoke to hurting people…those who don’t know how to receive help, and to a Church that needs to learn how to give it.
This story is true and the pastor is my brother.
When Jim related this story to me, he said that the animal had three options…learn to live with the pain, realize that through the process of time things work themselves out, or he could die.
For the individual with the pain, I am certain that they believe it is not as cut and dry as this sounds. For the hurting, there don’t seem to be easy solutions.
I I walked into you presence with a broken leg, you would immediately know what was wrong and make an attempt to see that I am comforted. A cast and crutches don’t leave you in suspense, wondering is something is wrong…you know by looking at me that there is a problem.
It is not that way on the inside…
We see folks service after service…week after week, but don’t realize what it may have taken for them to be there. We don’t see the days and weeks, and sometimes years of struggling with the pain.
Saved?! Oh yes, but hurting nonetheless.
When we speak of hurt, many immediately think that the hurt came from within the four walls of the Sanctuary, but many times this is not the case. People can be injured anywhere.
These folk are young and old…wealthy, middle class and poor…college grads and high school dropouts. They are from every ethnic and cultural background…from the preacher’s kid to the former street running heathen.
They are from broken homes. They may be single, happily married, unhappily married, or divorced. They are battered spouses or the batterer of a spouse. They may have been abused, or may be the abuser. They may have kids in trouble or financial woes. They could have been unjustly accused, or perhaps the unjust accuser. They may have suffered loss of a loved one. They may have a life threatening disease.
Perhaps they have never seen their hopes and dreams come to pass, watching while others have accomplished all they set out to do. Maybe they have been neglected and rejected, never receiving the recognition or appreciation they thought they deserved.
They are young and old…male and female, and they are IN the Church!!
What people fail to realize is that the healing they so desperately desire is right where they are sitting…IN the Church. But the Church is not just the building that houses our services…the Church is you…it’s me.
So, I am asking us tonight, what can we do for them?! Are we sensitive enough to lead them to the One who sees and knows all…the One with all the answers and all the right words...the One who can mend the broken heart and bring peace?!
If they turn to us for counsel, can they ever learn to trust us to love and not judge?! Can they learn to trust us to pray and not put their business on the street?! Do we love enough to extend and overextend for a brother or a sister in the Lord?!
Have we learned to trust?!
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