A couple weeks ago at church the Pastor started is message with a prompt. He opened telling us that the most talked about emotion in the Bible is Love. Makes sense. He questioned the congregation with "What do you think the second most talked about emotion is?" and prompted us to ask those around us. I asked my friends to the left and they thought maybe jealousy, my thoughts were either anger or sadness. So, I turn around and asked the elderly lady sitting behind me what she thought. She didn't know and asked me "what do you think?", excited to share I told her "sadness". Confident in my response. The Pastor called us back to attention. He gave the answer to the question... which was Regret. The sermon he preached was on Matthew 5: 38-48.. you know love your enemy, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you.Take home: don't regret tiffs you may have with others or yourself... instead resolve them. (Ask forgiveness... forgive)
At the end we took communion, sang a worship song, the Pastor prayed. A nice church service. Before we sang our last worship song the little lady from behind me gently grabs my arm and asks me " what was the first emotion the Pastor said at the beginning?", I told her " Love", she looks at me with a serious face and says " it makes sense then why you said sex." I looked at her processing what she said, half thinking this lady just said sex in church and then wondering what she must think about me for saying sex in church. I look at her seriously and say " Oh no, ma'am, I said Sadness." We both start smiling and then laughing, extremely amused by the whole miss-communication. The last worship song plays and at the end of service the lady and I exchange names and a genial agreement that we will not forget each other.
I left church that evening amused by how often we must say things that others interpret wrongly either because of bad hearing, words being taken out of context, or just too much background noise. I was glad the lady was not too prideful, fearful, or shy in this situation to clarify. She asked a context question that she had missed and by doing so found out she hadn't heard what I said either. In the end we formed a bond based on miss-communication and walked away a little more joyful for it.
Resolve. Clarify. Communicate.
Hey, Liz!
ReplyDeleteThis story you shared, has familiar parallels to what has happened for me just recently. I want to communicate the story. I was up in the prayer room last night, we didn't say anything and the presence of God began to grow stronger. I remember thinking "why would I want to be anywhere else?" and that I should start praying, so I invited the Holy Spirit to come and give us the ointments of His presence. The thing that was "burdening" my heart (or longing) realized into wanting to know what the secret to joy and gladness is. He began recalling to me all the offenses that I had harboured, and even how I had been "unfaithful" by worshipping worthless idols. A sinking feeling filled my heart, that I had not waited. That I had not waited for Jesus. That how was I to cherish His presence when I had stopped persevering? It made me want to be forgiven. It is the joy of waiting that will fill you when you get a new body. But the difference is inconsequential. Joy is made to erupt from within us! Before I go on, this is what I wanted to share this morning. I typed up an email, sent it to everyone I know, who is welcome to share it with anyone they know, And had resolved to share it in Intercession because it's so important and related to what we would be praying about. But as I began speaking I had another sinking feeling, one that I should keep my mouth shut, because I was nervous, and the leader was being interrupted, and we ended with awkward silence. Miscommunication! I had to have a meeting afterwards with Him. My resolve had dug myself a pit and I didn't know the way out of it. All I would say is, good on ya, for going back to the Lady first. (it's part of Matthew 18 conflict resolution)