So when you are blindsided by a sneak attack what do you do?
The first reaction is to retaliate. You want to get even and strike back at the individual or individuals involved in making your life miserable. The worst thing in the world is to try and explain your side of the story to people who are in limbo because of the sneak attack. To be honest with you, a pastor probably looses more people over stupid stuff that doesn't really make a lot of sense than over major sins committed by people in the congregation. At least that has been my experience and that of my father and brother. So naturally when you are blindsided by a sneak attack you want to make a stand and sometimes even get revenge.
But remember, that's something we can't do if we really love Jesus. So here's how to deal with that retaliatory spirit:
(1) Find a place and pray. Yes, that seems like a coy answer, but God can and will fight your battles for you if you let Him. Read 2 Chronicles 20. The same God that moved then will still move today on your behalf, but you have to ask Him for His help and direction.
(2) Find someone you have confidence in and share the whole story with them. Not gossip, not hearsay, but speak the truth. Ask them to pray with you or even to go to the person with you that perpetuated the attack. The Bible communicates to us that we as brethren should be able to agree to disagree in more than one passage.
(3) Know you can't stop everything. Let's face it-in our day people are going to believe what they want to believe no matter what. You will go crazy chasing down everything that you hear people have said or done to try and hurt you. Understand that if they criticized Jesus, they will criticize you. Understand also that if Jesus could overcome it so can you by His grace and mercy.
One of my funniest experiences happened with a lady whose grandson played in our church band. He had a tendency to try and overshadow everyone else with his playing and it was causing a problem. I met with him and got things straightened out, but that didn't go over to well with grandma. She jumped in on it as fast as she got the news. We had a meeting and she raked me over the coals for telling her grandson not to play so loud and to follow the music. It was not very pleasant to say the least, but like a good pastor I let her speak her peace.
Of course things started being said that weren't true and I found out she was behind all of that. I gave her a benefit of a doubt because of her age and health because I knew how my grandmother was about it. However, she called me up one day and started to complain again on the phone about me dealing with her grandson. She got more and more agitated on the phone with me becasue she was hard of hearing and couldn't understand half of what I was saying. So her husband got on their extension phone and tried to calm her down. As he was speaking to her and telling her to quit complaining she thought that it was me talking to her with that tone. He was trying to calm her down and she went to carrying on even harder thinking I was the one that was telling her to be quiet and to calm down. It wasn't until he walked in the room of their house with the extension in his hand that she stopped talking, apologized, and hung up. I got mad when she called me and kept wanting to rehash a dead issue, but by the time we hung up the phone I was laughing because she had made a fool out of herself by arguing with her husband on the phone. Pardon my grammar, but she got sneak attacked by her own husband!
After that conversation, I never had to worry about another sneak attack from her direction.
(Continued tomorrow)
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