” We Fall Down”

“WE ARE FAMILY”

• Not The Only One!
• Post#123
• 7 Mar 24   
•                ” We Fall Down”       
•                 ” We Are Family “
• Howdy,
• Thanks again  for popping  in.  I  know  that  as Americans  we love the ability to  choose.  It almost  doesn’t  matter  what it is, we want  options☺️.  I  remember  back  in the eighties  when I  use to sell real estate .and ,trust me showing  more  houses just makes the decision  that  much harder to make☺️☺️. Ok, where am I  going  with  this? It’s another  week  that I  have  way to many  options  about what to  publish.  This one is last minute and  a pivot of sorts.
• I  know  some pretty  deep  people, when  it comes to the intellectual.  Don’t  ask  me why they  let me hang  around  them , but for  me it’s the hope that some  of their  brilliance  will  rub off on me☺️☺️. So, one of my more gifted than myself  friends  were  discussing the  whole blood is thicker than water concept. Personally  I  think  that  there is enough  examples and evidence for that to be a 50/ 50 split. Some  people  have  wonderful  families full of wonderful  memories and  there are probably  just as many people  out there where that is not true and the complete  opposite of that. I  have  written  before about  family  and  I  will  occasionally  refer  to  mine.  I  wrote a post over a year ago about  brotherhood and  the  running  theme of it was that I  have  men in my life  who are not blood related, but are much more like family to me than  some of my own actual brothers.  One good  point that my brilliant  intellectual friend  pointed out is  that  with  all relationships, we get  out of them , what we choose to  invest  in  them. I  mean  that’s kind of a general  truth, but if you  don’t invest, then  why would  you  expect  a return? 
• Family  was God’s  idea from  the  beginning, and while  we have bastardize and perverted its original  intent, it was meant to be a place of peace and  security and a place  for love and  support.  It  almost  from its inception, its been twisted and  not what God had intended. All through out  scripture the families in the Bible  are full of chaos and  dysfunction. It’s starts out with  the  first  real  pass the buck as Adam  blames his wife for their  disobedience  to God. And if you  are  really  paying attention, he really  pushes the blame off on God , by saying ” it’s the woman  that you gave to me”, …slick right?☺️☺️. As you turn  the page, you have  one brother  killing the other, and all down  through  history, we are still  on this downward  spiral.   We  mostly  get  to  choose  our water, but none  of  us  get  to  choose what bloodline we  are  born  into.
• If I  may, I  want  to  switch the focus  within  the  same  narrative.  God has a family and  it’s a  unique  one because  of  its structure.  He has children; but no grandchildren.  You can  be married to  a  woman, and while  she is your wife, she is also  your sister ☺️. It  may sound  confusing, but I’m not talking about  Incest. God’s  family is  not made up of aunts, uncles or cousins, but only of brothers and sisters, with  Him , God Himself as our heavenly  Father.  I only  bring  this up because  people  who are  not a part of God’s  family don’t  always  get the dynamics of  how God has placed  us  into  His family  by His amazing  grace.  I have  people that I  pray  for because they  are  family, even  though  we share no common  blood, but are connected and bound together by the spirit of God. If I  could  sum up the  word family  with  one word, it would  probably  be messy.  We all have  something  or someone  that we are not exactly  crazy  about  when  it comes to our families. Families are  often a place  of pain and sorrow and  it’s no different  in God’s  family.  God is perfect and holy, but on this side of eternity, His kids are often  rebels, misfits and  a whole  bunch of  other  things  that  aren’t  their  calling, and makes  it difficult to  see a resemblance with  their  heavenly Father. ☺️☺️. Maybe  we aren’t  familiar  with the term ” calling ” . It’s    like the  way God put you together  with  different  gifts and talents and that is uniquely  what you are supposed to  do . If you  would, it’s another  play on if a person  finds something  that  they  love to do professionally, then  they  would  never work a day in their  life.  It’s a slight  exaggeration,  but you get  the point.  People  who  find  their  calling  in  life  are  rarely  people  you hear talking  about  burn out, because they are doing what they were designed to be and do. One of the young  junior managers at work is a prime example of  this. He’s a really  sharp young  man and  his calling  in life is to be a school  teacher.  He is a* nurturer , he’s really  kind, always  smiling and patient as the day is long. The unfortunate thing  is  , he opted out of his calling for a bigger  paycheck with  corporate America.  Yes, it’s truly  sad that we don’t  pay our teachers  better. Maybe  the bigger tragedy  here is all of the second and third graders who will  never  be  impacted by him because  he  abandoned his  calling in life.  I’m not judging and yes I’m aware of the  reality of  student  loans ☺️☺️.
• So let’s get  to  the  meat of it today.  I  was sitting in  church  on Sunday morning, wondering where our pastor  had disappeared to. I  think I’ve Maybe seen  him once in the last five  weeks  or so. The staff has been  pinch hitting and doing a  pretty  good  job.  So at the end of the  service, they  brought  him out on the stage, and it was very  much like  a  perp walk.☺️☺️ He came  out and said that he has stuff  going  on  and that the church  council decided that  he  should  step  away for a  little bit.  My immediate response  was  that my heart broke.  My brain is  telling me that I’ve seen this before and  it’s never a good thing.  Great!  , another  church  scandal.  I  don’t  know  what he did or was involved in, they didn’t  say and honestly  other  than  to  pray for him and his family, it’s really  none of my business.  He has a ” calling ” on his life and  regardless of  the  circumstances, he deserves  forgiveness and  empathy  just  like  anyone else.  He’s looking  thin, so perhaps  it’s  drugs . The inquiring  mind can run  in a million  different  directions from  an affair, to porn, or some financial impropriety.  It doesn’t matter and I  don’t  really  care other  than  the  ripple effects.  Even  before  we could  leave  the  Sanctuary there were rumblings of  gossip.  It’s truly  said at how fast God’s  kids can  go  from  worshippers to gossipers, honestly I don’t  believe  that  some high end sports cars can  get that  kind of  performance ☺️☺️.  I mostly  felt  sad, because  I have  seen this play out before. 
• The Truth is  that  anyone  who has a calling  on their  life and especially  one of prominence, is walking  around  with  a  Bullseye  on their  back. It’s not just  pastors, but politicians, community leaders and the sort. Satan loves it when  pastors fall or mess up because  it comes with  a  dominoes effect.  Its like tearing at the fabric of a loose thread on an old sweater, and the hope is that enough  pulling  at the loose thread will  cause a major  unraveling, and  yes that has happened  before.  We have a  tendency to  place these people on pedestals and garner them  with  honor.  I’m not one of those  people  who  believes  that just  because  someone  stumbles or falls that we should  cancel  them.  We hold them  to a lofty standards,  all the while  minimizing our own  personal  failings and  short comings, aka, sins☺️☺️. The Bible  has what should  be  considered  church  discipline towards  having  someone  restored to  fellowship, and I  guess  him taking the  first  step in  admitting that something  is *ary  was doing that. He is not the first and definitely will  not  be  the  last church  leader or otherwise to  fall and stumble. It’s always  misfortunate and it is almost  always  never self contained.  We like  to  think that some of our sins are hidden away and effects  just  us, but it  rarely  works that way. If nothing  else  God  knows and sees all. The word of God  says that  our sins  will  see the light of day,  or be discovered.  Yes, there is absolutely  a thing  about  taking  somethings  to the grave with you, but they  won’t  be  omitted in God’s  judgment.  Personally I  think  it’s better  that certain  things  go undiscovered.  I  remember the  things that I  found  out about  my grandfather  after  his passing.  They  mostly scared the memories that I  had  of him and  they  were  not reflective of the person  that  I  knew  him to be.  People  change  and  grow and  hopefully  learn  from  their  mistakes.  Its even  a  little  bit  shady when  they  aren’t  around  to defend  themselves, so what’s the point  of  making it known.  God will  definitely  sort it out as He is  appropriate judge.  Just  like my pastor, we are all prone to make  mistakes and  do things  that  are not our most shinning moments.  All of us, regardless of  who we are and where we find  ourselves  put our pants on at one leg at a time ☺️☺️. We are all flawed and  are in need of a savior. One of  the  things that  we so easily  forget  is that we are so much  more  than  the sum of our past faux pas. No, No, No !, this isn’t about  our good out weighing our bad stuff, but the fact that  we have  impacts  on people around us, probably  much  without our knowledge.  It’s not always the things that we want to be intentionally known or seen  for, but perhaps a kind  word  to a little  child in a grocery store ☺️☺️.
• The saying is ” Heavy is the head that wears the crown”, and this is so true.  It’s universal, and it applies to  even if you  are just  the head of your household trying  to  lead the charge. The Bible gives a stern  warning to  pastors and  teachers, holds them to a higher  standard and demands that they  be above  reproach. Higher calling, higher standards.  This is mostly  do to the rippling effect that I had mentioned  earlier.  Our sins don’t  just  effect us and ourselves,  and  it almost doesn’t matter what  it is. When  I  went  back  to  school and studied  psychology, there was a debate  about  victimless crimes and I  just  don’t  believe  that there is  such a thing.  Maybe we like  to justify when  bad things  happen to bad people, but no less  some one  is still  hurt. The things  that  we sometimes  watch  in secret in a dark place, it has a play on who you are and who you  are becoming, whether  you  recognize it or not. The ripple basically  has two main  streams, one inside the  church and the other  far outside the  church. Inside we have the level  of  trust that was broken between  him  and  his  family and  with  the congregation, and more importantly with  God  . I  can’t  imagine, and most  definitely don’t  want  to  be  in his shoes to try and restore all that  has  been  stolen and  broken.  I know that the scrutiny  will be unbearable at times , but it’s part of the repentance, the remorse and the wanting to  repair  the brokenness that has taken  place ,  and there are no short  cuts for that.  One of the most discouraging thing about  this is that there will be  people who will leave  the church  over this. There will  be some who will  pull back on their  service and even their  giving because of  this one man’s  indiscretion, and again  we don’t  know what  it is , and to them  it won’t  matter.  They  are hurt and disappointed, and probably sadly  following  the  man that fell, instead  of  Christ  who leads.  We are called to  follow and give our allegiance to Christ , not to a pastor, or anything else  or anyone else.
• Outside the church, we have the scoffers and  critics.  These are the people who  love to sit back  and  say, ” here we go again ” . We got ourselves another  one with their  hands in the cookie  jar☺️☺️. They  love  the negative  feeding  frenzy. They  think that  most things  dealing with  faith  is a scam or a hoax of some kind ,  and  that church  leadership  is   only  in it for the money.  Personally  knowing  how messy  people  can  be and especially in  a faith setting, there is no amount of  money that would  make  me lean in that direction ☺️☺️. As they  say, it’s got to be an easier way to make a buck ☺️☺️. I  think that they  usually  follow up  with  the fact that  the church is full of  hypocrites and that is absolutely  true, no argument  from  me there. The problem  is that  they  will  keep and allow  hypocrites to  keep  them  from  a personal  relationship with  God. We are all hypocrites at some point  and time. If we want to  find something  wrong, there will  always  be  plenty of  things that can  go into  that pile.☺️☺️ I  just  think that  if your  position is  that you want to maintain a  hard heart and pride in yourself, you don’t  have to  look to the hypocrite as an excuse, and you  don’t  have  to  be little  the people who  are trying to  draw close to  God and to become  better  humans.  I will  say this , I  just  love and admire  their  superiority  complex, which makes them hate the very  thing that they are themselves, you  have  to  admit  that  there  is  some rich irony there☺️☺️.  The only  way that we even  remotely  come close to being  better  humans is that as  we decrease and He” Jesus ” increases in our lives.  That’s what it’s all about more of Him and less of us.
• There is an old song out there and I’m going  to  have to  see if i can  find it. The song says that we fall down, but we get up and that God’s  saints  are just  the sinners  who   fall down, but get  back  up . Really that’s  all there  is to it , we fall down, but we get  back  up and ask for forgiveness and  allow God to clean us up again.  That doesn’t  mean that  there won’t  be  consequences and possibly some painful  Repercussions, but the good news is that God can  use all of that brokenness and  turn  it  into  an unrecognizable masterpiece.
• As far as  my pastor  goes, he is still  my brother and nothing  can  ever change  that, because  I  have  seen  his heart on numerous  occasions and I  know that  he’s not in it for the money, but for the sake of the call placed on his life.  I don’t  know  what  took place  and again  as I  said , I  don’t  need  to  know, ultimately  that’s between  him and God and it will  get  worked  out.  I  love  him and respect him, which  is  not the same  thing  as condoning  any wrong  doing that may have  taken  place. He has proclaimed God’s  word  in a clear and timeless  way  week  after  week, without  compromise.  He has allowed  God to use him, in  many different  ways in the past, and  there is  always the   possibility for that to take place once again after  he has been  further  refined, that furnaces  sure can get  hot☺️☺️ . I will  be praying  for  him , and all whom may  have  been  effected and for our church  as a whole .  It’s important for  us to  pray  for  our leadership, whether  it’s your  party  or not, and Lord knows that  our current  administration  could  use all the prayers that we can  muster☺️☺️. Seriously, just  pray , God  commands it.
• Till Next Time ✌️ Peace!
• Sandy The Southerner