Emily O. writes:
I don't know about you, but I tend to dread church meetings, typically Voters' Meetings. They loom on the calendar like infrared targets ripe for a sudden and terrible strike. As the day approaches, the tension rises and the pressure increases until I feel like an overfilled balloon. And I don't even personally attend any meetings at church!
While my description of meetings is dramatic, the truth is that church members and pastors are sinners, and whenever sinners get together, they tend to, well, sin. Depending on the church and the dynamics thereof, people exhibit and/or experience volatility when congregating together (I would even venture a guess that there's more fireworks in church meetings than in many other places, and not the kind that make people "oooh" and "aaah" with pleasure). And this is a sad reality of life together as God's people. We get mad, we get frustrated, we say mean and hurtful things. We get quiet and brooding and sullen. We harbor malice. We reject the mercy that God has given us in Christ and so reject our neighbors.
Sometimes anger is righteous. But too often, bitterness reigns. The balance is so difficult to keep, whether you're a layperson who's given decades of service to the church or whether you're a pastor's wife.
But thanks be to Him who saved us--and still saves us--from ourselves. He forgives our biting words, our sarcastic asides, our wrong assumptions and conclusions, our hateful thoughts. And--miracle of miracles--He comes again to meet us in each Divine Service, to serve us perfectly, to grant us forgiveness and to give us peace. I still won't be attending Voters' Meetings anytime soon, but I'm thankful that there's always a Christ-meeting just around the corner.
Brief update: I originally wrote this in July before our last Voter's Meeting. Tonight was our next quarterly meeting. My DH said that while some talk was contentious and impassioned, people were civil to one another--thank God.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I do not attend those meetings.
ReplyDeleteBest line - "I'm thankful that there's always a Christ-meeting just around the corner." We sinners can gather at the Lord's table and receive Christ's Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins.
I do not either...and some people at church were amazed that I didn't. But my main reason is that I would probably treat my husband without much respect since most of the time we do not agree how to reach the goal...so I didn't want the memebers to see that. That is the sinner in me that I am trying to work on. Maybe it is just I say that when I was growing up. My dad was not a leader at all. And I my mo is the one who showed the leadership. But I want it to be different. Adam is a great leader of this family, I am the one who needs to step beck and let him lead. Also I am a person who takes things very personally and I would cry after ever meeting if I attended. Emily great point about the "Christ-meeting" my husband himself has said similar things to our voters.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kristi--what a gift that Christ receives us sinners at His table!
ReplyDeleteAnd BethAnn--thank you for your honesty. I too struggle to honor and respect my husband as I should, and I am thankful that you seek to protect him by not putting yourself in a position that you suspect might injure him, particularly as he seeks to serve the sheep Christ called him to serve. I think our sinful nature always seeks to dominate or at least to be right, and this impedes wives from properly submitting to their husbands. And husbands need time to practice being leaders, too! My husband did not have a leading father, and so he's learning as he goes in that respect. I will pray for you and Adam as you learn to serve each other in your marriage vocations (and please do the same for me)!