and saves the crushed in spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD rescues them from them all.
Psalm 34:18-19
"First there is the fall, and then we recover from the fall. Both are the mercy of God!" -Julian of Norwich
I saw the second quote in today's meditation from Fr. Richard Rohr. He was talking about how it is necessary for us to stumble and fall if we are to become spiritually mature. We must lose control in order to give control over to God.
That is a lesson that can be difficult for pastors. We are trained to be the experts with the answers, and we live in a culture that expects experts with answers. If we bump into a problem that seems beyond our capabilities, there is always a conference or seminar or training event that will teach us this bit of expertise we are somehow missing. Is it any wonder that many congregations take on the personality of their pastor rather than that of Jesus?
I detest the notion of being incompetent, of feeling not up to the task. I must admit that I find it terrible difficult to experience God's grace and mercy in failure, in stumbling and falling. But deep down, I'm reasonably sure that Julian of Norwich and Richard Rohr are correct. To borrow Rohr's phrase, we must "fall upward," but I do not like the sensation of falling.
I've been feeling really worn out lately, and I have to wonder if some of my tiredness doesn't come from trying so hard not to fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment