Gentleness at work

I'm not sure how the Lord speaks to you but I know how He often speaks to me.  It's not always with incredible pomp and circumstance or like standing on the side of the street as the parade passes by with incredible noise and color.  More often then not, the Lord just gently nudges and whispers for me.  There was a time in my life, though,  when I thought I would hear the Lord speak and I felt it necessary to test whether or not it was really the Lord.  Anymore, I find myself not having to test as much because his gentle nudges seem to always reflect what his Word has already said.  I find myself often just releasing a heavy sigh, and whispering to myself, "Yes, Lord.  I know.  I missed that one."

The point in my telling you this is because I had one of the those "whisper / nudge moments" this last week.  A friend of mine, who is also a pastor, was going through a real difficult physical ailment.  You could tell that this ailment was really beginning to take a toll on the emotions.  Of course being the good pastor that I try to be I told my friend that I would be in prayer and praying specifically for a quick recovery.  Little did I know that this is when the Lord was about to strike.  I knew people from my friends former church and I asked if there was anyone that I could contact to let them know of this situation.  Silence.

I guess I should back up some and give you a little bit of history, especially leading up to this point.  You see, this pastor left this church pretty bloodied and battered.  I'm sure this pastor would personally confess that mistakes were made, and if there were a "rewind" button it would be pushed in order to back up to a place and time where the forward momentum of the avalanche could be stopped.  Unfortunately, no such button, no such remote.  So when I asked about whether the physical circumstances could be shared with others, I'm sure what the pastor saw was volumes of flashing difficult memories.

Then I heard the whisper, I felt the nudge - "Isn't it a shame that we would rather carry around personal baggage and discontent all for the sake of keeping the fuels of bitterness active and kindled.  Don't you think, whether blameless or not, we would do everything in our power to make sure that relationships were reconciled?"  You might respond to a message like this by saying - "Well, I would but it wouldn't change them!"  To which I could see a counter response - "Why does the activity of another person matter to you?  You're not carrying their baggage, you're carrying your own, and it looks kind of heavy."  Hmmm.  "So, Lord what you are saying is, whether I am right or wrong I should be the person to initiate good will to someone I don't like very much?"  Silence. 

Goodness 101

I did a funeral of a very dear friend of mine about six years ago, who was seen as an upstanding individual both in the community he lived and in his church.  In fact, on the day of the funeral several people approached me and shared a very similar attribute of my friend.  Each person stated what a "good man" he was.  I found it funny that each person who shared this sentiment was not always considered "good" themselves, and yet, they knew what the attribute of "goodness" looked like.

I ask myself, how is that?  How is it that an individual can know what goodness looks like, but cannot accomplish it in their own life?  Most people know what goodness is but when you ask them why they fail to do good things their response is usually, "I want to, but I just keep messing up."  Thus, the first semester lesson of Goodness 101, finding out what Paul meant in Romans 7 when he shared -
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
Romans 7:18-19 (NLT)


Paul states that true goodness does not come to us naturally, but through the Holy Spirit.  We cannot even know what goodness is without God, the source of goodness.  But how do we implement goodness in our lives?  Even Paul knew how difficult it was to walk daily in goodness.  I think many of us have struggled with goodness on a daily basis because we have forgotten how to sift our actions regularly through God's goodness.  We either become complacent / lazy or egotistical, thinking in both situations that we can handle life on our own.


I believe true goodness is partly learned and partly pursued.  We learn goodness from others around us who know what living a good life is all about, but it's not pursued until we begin to sift all of our actions through the Holy Spirit and discipline our lives in such a way that Christ is revealed more and more.  This discipline never comes to an end in our lives while here on earth. 


Let me hear your thoughts on this subject.


Randy