The noble art of upsetting people

A few days ago I did it again – or, hopefully it wasn´t me…

It has happened so many times by now that it is becoming a habit of mine, this stepping on other people´s sore toes without even knowing it.

 

I was doing some bibleteaching in a little congregation, a new place to me, I had never been there before. I knew a handful of those gathered there, but most were unknown to me, nor had I received any closer information of the place prior to my visit.

I had on my heart to speak of wisdom, God´s wisdom and Man´s wisdom, and how we have to abandon our homemade wisdom in order to receive God´s.

I gave some examples of situations where the Bible speaks clear and loud of how things should be done, but where contemporary Christianity all to often choose to follow man-made wisdom instead, imported from the part of mankind that doesn´t yet confess Jesus as Lord.

And sure, I noticed some kind of rising tension in the air while I was speaking, but since I mostly ignore such feelings I stubbornly kept on until the message was delivered.

 

Yesterday one of the few I knew there called me.

”There was no way you could have known, but every single example you gave was aimed straigt into our situation! I doubt there will be any next time, you hit the mark all too well… at the point where you lifted the end of the rug and said that Christians are all too ready to sweep all unpleasant things in their congregations under the rug rather than deal with them in a biblical way, and then you said that we seemed to have a real big rug handy in the midst of the church – I was on the verge of bursting out laughing, that´s exactly how things have been done here…”

 

Well, what could I say, other than it sure wasn´t me if it was that good!

And, if this means that I´ll receive no more invitations from that particular place, what else can I say than rather I go there once, and speak out what is given to me, than a hundred times playing the peoplepleaser…

 

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