God remains in control…
I haven’t written a blog post in a while. Why? Well… I haven’t had a lot of time, nor have I really had a lot to say. But I’ve kind of felt the Spirit moving me tonight, as I get the feeling there are a lot of people hurting tonight and something needs be said. I’ll preface this by saying, I’m neither a terribly gifted preacher, nor an altogether dynamic layman, so don’t expect something the caliber of what you might get out of any one of the pastors at church.
A vote took place tonight at church, the results of which affect the very course of our church’s history. Some are heartbroken, others upset, and most are bewildered at this point. The expressions on the leadership team’s faces when they walked up on the platform said everything that needed be said: “What are we going to do now?”
I won’t go into the details of the situation, most who need to know the situation’s details already, but in short this vote decided whether or not Pastor Lindsey would be restored as our pastor. This great man, who shepherded us through the first seven years of being, seemed a shoo-in to return to the pulpit. Yet somehow, the vote slid below the required 75% mark required to pass. And now the congregation, too, is left wondering what just happened.
It’s incredible to view how God used the messages Pastor Lindsey preached to prepare us for it, even if we didn’t realize that’s how we were being preached to. The sermons that were intended, at the time, as a reasonable defense for why he was acceptable to return to the pulpit, wound up being some of the deepest spiritual truths imaginable for the time we were approaching – God sometimes has to teach us deep spiritual truths in the darkness.
In Isaiah tonight, Amanda and I were discussing the situation, and I let go with the comment that God makes in Isaiah 55-
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts
Isaiah 55:8-9 (KJV)
What interesting about that (which I didn’t notice until Amanda pointed it out), is what all else was in that chapter of scripture. Further down the page:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 55:11-13 (KJV)
God’s words will not return void, but it shall accomplish that which he pleases… This verse, among many others, gives me comfort tonight.
The reactions of some is with great zeal and fervor, wondering what could possibly have possessed the 28% to vote that way, I’ve even seen some turning it into an “Us vs. Them” mentality, thinking that those who did not vote with the majority were somehow traitors that hated Pastor Lindsey. Paranoia starts to set in, people start wondering what someone else has against them, why would that 28% want to ruin it for the rest of us.
I think everyone needs to take a big step back, take a deep breath, and chill for a moment.
After tonight’s vote, there was no joy. There was a lot of weeping, red eyes, downcast faces. In looking around the room, there was no one who looked particularly happy. Think about it, folks. Who there was prancing around singing “Ding, dong, the witch is dead?” Who walked up to Pastor Lindsey and shouted “HA! You lose!”? Nobody. I didn’t see anyone gloating. What I saw was a room full of hurting people, people who didn’t understand what just happened, some looked angry, others shell-shocked, but when it came right down to it, no one looked like it had been an easy decision. I think that for the last several weeks a lot of prayer has gone in for everyone involved for God to reveal his will, and God did just that in a way that none of us truly expected.
God’s ways are not our ways. We aren’t always going to understand why things happen the way that they do, and God’s in no way going to be forced into revealing it to us right away. But we are still to be one body, and move forward with one accord. God revealed his will to us, what are we going to do with it? Are we going to strive together to continue on in his will, to discover what God DOES have planned for us? Or are we going to be, as Jared brought up in a recent sermon, like Jonah, and say “See God? That’s not how I would’ve done it. You really messed that up, if we would’ve just done this my way, this ALL could’ve been avoided!”
I’d like to put my vote forth – Let’s move forward and see how God can work. Like the children of Israel, he didn’t lead us to the edge of the Red Sea to watch Pharaoh’s chariots barrel down on top of us and utterly destroy us. He led us to the Red Sea so that we can witness HIS miracles, and HIS glory.
For those who had the majority vote – Don’t become bitter about it. The vote, even with the people involved, was still in God’s hands the entire time. God works in the hearts of the people, and to become bitter at those who you may not have agreed with is simply giving place to the devil. Paul wrote in Ephesians,
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Eph 4:31-32 (KJV)
I don’t think a decision like the one that was made tonight was made lightly by any of the parties involved, nor do I think it was a personal attack on our pastor. I think everyone there tonight had approached it with much prayer and supplication, and – as I said before – the entire process was in God’s hands, not ours.
Additionally, those who voted with the minority – don’t gloat, or make it seem like those who were voting with the majority were wrong in voting how they did. This is a time where we’re being broken as a congregation, and now more than ever we need to strengthen ourselves for the trying times that are coming. We need to move forward and face the future, not spend time dwelling on the things of the past.
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Phil 2:1-2 (KJV)
We can ill afford to sit back and do nothing, friends. We cannot begin to let bitterness seep in, or to think that God in some way has abandoned us. God was here before this time came, God’s still here now that the time is upon us, and God will remain with us in the future. Never lose sight of that!
As I think about all of the ways that I’ve grown under Pastor Lindsey’s teaching, there’s one thing that I think always stood out about his salvation story – When he talked about how the deacon who led him to Christ fell away, he began to question why he was even in it any more, and considered quitting. His pastor told him to get his eyes off of the man and get his eyes on Christ.
That, if you take nothing else from this, is going to be the big thing. Stop focusing on what men are doing, start focusing on what God wants us to do. The world is watching us, how are we going to handle the coming darkness?
Andrew
Psalms 84:11