March 8, 2013

  • The Watershed Moment [Part 2 of "Are You Gonna' Show, Lord?"]

    WtrShdMomnt3-13   

          I don’t think I have ever been a model employee and this was particularly true during my employment at the bakery factory where I worked for twenty eight years.  However, during that time, I experienced my share of shabby treatment from both my co-workers and supervisors in that place.  Whether I was responsible or not for the many conflicts that I experienced there, my heart was fully determined to resolve the difficulties that I had with the various people in that place.  I was staunchly devoted to the ‘ministry of reconciliation’ (see II Corinthians 5:18-20), the divine mandate to do my very best to get matters settled between myself and others.  I soon found that many of these people had no intention nor any interest whatsoever at restoring our fractured relationships.  There was simply no spiritual desire to do anything about this sad situation.  Rather, they not only preferred  the constant state of conflict, resentment, contempt and bitterness; they promoted  and cultivated   it as well.

          I learned some important lessons during this very difficult period of time as my heart did the unbelievably hard work of incessantly seeking solutions and answers for restoring these shattered connections.  First and foremost, it was simply not going to happen.  My strong commitment to reconciliation was not strong enough. The required cooperation from others was not there and likely would never  be. This realization compelled me to abandon my attempts at resolution.  Reconciliation requires  accountability from everyone involved.  I came to understand that my best efforts to make these people accountable and responsible for their own attitudes and actions was no longer possible.  In their hearts, there was no sense of need or desire for reconciliation and so the only option left open to me was to release  them from these obligations, and forgive them.  And I have.

          I am now forced to accept the extremely slow and painful understanding that the situation at the bakery factory as I was compelled to leave it, is likely very much the same one that I face with the church leaders previously mentioned here.  My commitment to reconciliation has driven me to extreme lengths (they must acknowledge this) in challenging their accountability in this matter.  Over the last couple of years I have gone way out of my way, taking various approaches in order to engage these people to assume an appropriate role in resolving the differences between us.  All to no avail.

          Being the spiritual leaders of a church, one would imagine that there should be an absolute, even eager dedication to the principle of the "ministry of reconciliation" as outlined by the Apostle Paul and demanded by our Lord.  Sadly, I have found this devotion entirely lacking.  There simply seems to be no spiritual desire to get these matters that are causing this deep rift between us finally resolved.

          Spiritual leaders that are just that-- spiritual leaders, will always be committed to the principle of reconciliation.  I guess that is why I am so saddened and disappointed to realize that these leaders with whom I have experienced a break in relationship, seem in many ways to be quite like the people in the bakery factory.  They have seemed to have abandoned their spiritual mandate to be committed to the ministry of reconciliation.  I have demanded accountability to both myself and to them, but for whatever reason, they have consistently refused to be held responsible for the admittedly hard work of reconciliation. 

          The work of reconciliation is finished whenever people either finally accept, or  reject the call to accountability.  All that remains is the responsibility to forgive.  And that burden may either be one of joy or great sadness.  Once the work of reconciliation (the attempts to get issues resolved) is finished, whether it succeeds or fails, forgiveness kicks in and the impulse to genuinely forgive is surprisingly abrupt and complete.  For me, the light came on when the work of reconciliation was finished, and the burden carried in my heart for so many years had been lifted; I have forgiven these people once and for all, and what a ‘watershed moment’ it has been for me!  By God's grace, I have done the unbelievably difficult--even 'gut-wrenching' work of reconciliation and forgiveness.  And I PRAISE GOD!!