TURNING BOMBSHELLS INTO BLESSINGS, PART 1
For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates me who has magnified himself against me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my close companion and my familiar friend; we who had sweet counsel together (as we) walked in the house of God in the throng.
Psalm 55:12-14
Some of the strangest events of my life have happened to me in October. Perhaps the strangest was the day that I met with the lead pastor of our church in 2001 and heard him say that I would be leaving because “I did not fit” anymore. There was no sin involved, no logical explanation, no vote by the church. He had called a secret meeting of the elders (which I heard later lasted until midnight) and just decided that “I did not fit”. To say that I was shocked and devastated is a great understatement. On top of it all, he asked me to lie and sign a letter saying that it was my own idea to leave!
I could hardly walk back to the parsonage and face my wife. There were many questions that I would have liked to ask in that meeting, but it was all I could do to hold myself together, being a sensitive person (something that the other pastor belittled me about later).
Rather than fight the issue and split the church, I felt God’s leading to just go. How could I ever minister to people who didn’t think that I “fit” anyway? And as the Lord would have it, the next week H.B. London (the “pastor’s pastor” at Focus on the Family) spoke at a nearby church. He said that one in three pastors will be removed from their church sometime in their career, and it will be because of seven people or less (there were seven on our elder board). Jesus sent great peace through prayer, church friends, and other pastors, along with my family, and, as always, the Lord had a plan to turn a bombshell into a blessing. [See part 2 of this story in tomorrow’s devotional.] But anyone who ever trusted in people and then regretted it knows how hard it is to recuperate from the pain of Judas’ kiss. Praise Jesus that His mercy is everlasting (Psalm 136).
Davy L. Troxel