A Healing Hand

I had been given a significant leadership role at a certain church I attended and over time, felt like God was asking me to move on from there. My role at this church was an administrative/ logistical position which involved overseeing setup and teardown for Sunday services and special events and making sure volunteers got plugged into the right ministry area. It was great.  However, as time went on, I felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit to take steps toward the dream God had put in my heart, which was communicating the challenges God has brought me through to help set His people free.  This desire would not leave me, but kept growing.  Then this Bible passage jumped off the pages at me,

Acts 6:1-4 (New International Version) “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.’”

The apostles started getting bogged down with the day to day needs of the people, which in turn, interrupted sharing the word of God. To keep this from happening they chose other qualified leaders to meet the hospitality needs so they could spend their time and energy teaching. God showed me that He wanted me to share the Word of God with people and let go of my current responsibilities because they were keeping me from doing God’s will for my life. I approached the pastor and told him what I believed God was asking me to do and he didn’t agree with how I was handling the situation. Misunderstanding happened and both the pastor and I were hurt as well as many people from the church. It was a difficult situation. I ended up moving in the direction I believed God asked me to go and many great doors of opportunity started to open. It was neat to see the hand of God working. The whole next year, I experience a couple circumstances that resembled the situation I went through from my previous church, except I was in the same position that my old pastor was in. I experienced such hurt and pain from some individuals that left my current church. They once were really involved and then for some reason disagreed with the way we did things and the next thing you know they left the church and tried to take many people with them. They talked behind our backs and said nasty things that were not completely true…half truths. For the first time, I realized that I was not the only one that was hurt when I left my previous church. My old pastor and many people from his church were hurt too, but I failed to see they were hurting because I saw through my own lens. It was not an accurate depiction of the truth. It was distorted and I only saw from my vantage point. God allowed me to experience a similar situation from my old pastor’s perspective so that I could understand how he felt when I left his church. I told my side of the story to others and it was not completely accurate. I am thankful that God in His infinite wisdom allowed me to go through these trials so that I could have compassion on hurting people and learn to show mercy. After all, God extended it to me! The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:8 (Amplified Bible), “Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and [a]disregards the offenses of others]. I no longer was upset with him, but actually wanted him to succeed and be all that God wanted him to be. I extended a hand of mercy because I realized he was not perfect just like I was not perfect. God put on my heart to write my old pastor a letter apologizing for how I handled the situation. Admitting I was wrong and accepting personal responsibility for my actions brought a bridge of reconciliation for the future. If we can look beyond offenses and see the good in people just think of how different our world would look. Let’s give people the benefit of the doubt and not be so judgmental or critical of them. Give them room to make some mistakes! The Bible is filled with imperfect people doing extraordinary things for God.

Can you admit when you are wrong? Do you find yourself upset with a loved one, a coworker, spouse or a friend for a suffered wrong? Ask God to help you see from His perspective instead of yours. Your point of view just might need some tweaking!  I am grateful He brought balance to my viewpoint because I can now offer a healing hand of wisdom and show compassion for others who face similar circumstances.