Moving Day
Psalm 145:8-9,13 - The Lord is gracious and
compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is
good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. The Lord
is faithful to all his promises and loving towards all he
has made. (NIV)
I am an interim pastor. My job is to go into a church and
help to prepare it for a new "settled" pastor. Looking at
the goals of the church is part of this. Our "Thinking-Big
Day", as I call it, took place on a recent Sunday after a
church luncheon. Little did any of us expect the amazing
display of God's grace that followed.
As our meeting started, one of the parishioners said that he
had something to say. He told us the following story.
He had awakened at 3:30 a.m. the previous Friday morning
with a very heavy heart. He felt very anxious. He was most
preoccupied all Friday ... he couldn't get away from this
feeling. He came to realize that this church (meaning the
people) really had to "move on" if they were going to
develop valid goals.
Finally, Saturday evening, he was led to write a parable,
which told of two farmers who lived side by side. They
raised different crops. They each had a horse, and when they
helped each other, using the horses as a team, they did very
well. Then something happened, and they had a falling out.
The next year, working by themselves, each had a terrible
year. The moral of the tale was that they needed to work
together.
The man told us this story, and said that this was symbolic
of their church, and that if they were really going to "move
on", they needed to rid themselves of the feelings,
misunderstandings, and hurt pride that had emerged in the
previous year and which had brought this church family to
its knees. He then said that he would start by accepting
responsibility for his part of the problem because he loved
this church and wanted it to "move on".
He reviewed some of the painful things that had happened and
accepted his role in it. His courage was truly remarkable as
he bared his pain and asked for forgiveness. It was as if a
dam had been opened. Others got up and accepted
responsibility for their actions and asked for forgiveness.
People ended by hugging, sharing, laughing, and crying. All
were holding hands as we prayed together and sang, "Blest Be
The Tie That Binds".
I have never seen anything like this before. It was
beautiful, exciting, and transforming. It was a real turning
point for this church. It surely was God's amazing grace in
action. What a marvelous "moving day"!
Prayer: Holy and gracious One, Your ways continue to astound
us and to move us to do things that we never could do on our
own. May we all be open to the proddings of Your Holy
Spirit, so that we, too, may move on in our lifelong
journey, home to You. In Christ's name. Amen.
Patricia Glore
glorepp@aol.com Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, USA