An Irish Blessing?*

Shamrock photo credit: Wikipedia

 After some difficult meetings in a church where I was a pastor, I sought some wisdom and consolation from a wonderful mentor.  This man had pastored  a large church for many years, planted a church (where my wife had attended 10 years before), and in his retirement he served as an interim pastor at several places.  He also took time in his retirement to encourage several younger pastors. As I complained and wondered out loud how he had managed to love this same congregation for a year when he was their interim.  He remained his wonderful cheery self and simply encouraged me to keep being the shepherd God had called me to be regardless of how the people acted. I told him there were moments when I felt like one of the “sons of thunder” when dealing with some particularly contentious congregants. After the Samaritans did not welcome Jesus, James and John asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”(Luke 9:54 NIV) Jesus of course rebuked them, took them to another village, and reminded them that they were to save the lost, not annihilate them. I asked him to pray for me as I was about to meet with the chairman of one of the committees. He said he would pray for me. But as he was leaving,  in his fun lighthearted way, recited an old Irish blessing.  He said, "May those that love us love us; And those that don't love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He can't turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles, So we'll know them By their limp."  We both chuckled a little at the pastoral humor, until a little later that day when I got a call from the wife of this contentious committee chairman saying that we needed to cancel our meeting because he was in the hospital. I said, “I am sorry, what happened?” She said, “he fell off a ladder and broke his ankle.” I was in shock, but found out where he was in the hospital and went to pray with him. Even though we were often at odds with each other, I don’t want to see anyone get hurt like that.  Interestingly though, he was much kinder to everyone, including me, after this incident.  BTW: I never shared with this man about the Irish blessing that was spoken right around the time the incident happened. 

Eventually, the apostles James and John got it.  They matured enough in their walk with Jesus to no longer want to destroy those who disagreed with them. They embraced Jesus’ mission to seek and to save the lost. James became one of the first martyrs for the Gospel at the hands of Herod. John went on to write about Jesus and the importance of loving God and others in all five of His books in the Bible: the Gospel of John; 1,2,3 John; and Revelation. Jesus reminded his disciples and all of us. “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”(Luke 6:27-28NIV) I’m not sure if this includes praying an Irish blessing over them, but it does mean we have to love them all like Jesus does. 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all.

I Shoulda' Had A V8, or Maybe Not!*

Oldsmobile Delta 88 

credit: 55lincoln on Youtube 

 One Saturday morning, after we had raked a mountain of leaves out of the driveway, my sister was hanging around hoping to drive my mother’s old car back into its place between the garage doors. My sister was in 7th grade, so my father, who had driven a car or tractor since he was 10 years old, thought since she was interested, that it would be a good time to let her begin to learn how to drive.  She would only be moving the car back and forth in the driveway. What could go wrong? My mother had just gotten a new car, so the older Oldsmobile Delta 88 was to be parked outside. My father wanted my sister to place the car exactly between the two garage doors so that when my parents backed out, they wouldn’t hit it. So, she slowly pulled foreward, then backed up again, pulled up, and backed up again… this was not just perfectionism, she also wanted that little bit of extra time behind the wheel. Until the moment when she thought she had put the car in “R” and in fact it was still in “D.”  When she realized that she was headed toward the fieldstone masonry wall, she panicked. She slammed both of her feet on the gas and the brake simultaneously. She lost control because the brake was no match for the giant 455 V8 Olds engine. Its nickname was the “Rocket.” The unequaled early 70’s muscle car torque careened that vehicle into the house so hard it pushed back the concrete and stone wall a few inches, Dad had to put extra jacks under the house to support the second floor. Interestingly, the Olds didn’t have a lot of damage, my sister however, was shaken up and felt terrible, vowing through tears to “never drive again!” My father felt badly for her too, thinking perhaps he may have jumped the gun on letting her drive that soon. He consoled her saying, “everything’s going to be okay.” In my immature sibling way, I teased her about it, making squealing tire and crash sounds for weeks afterward.  She was resilient and did actually drive again in a couple of years. My father taught her to drive a stick shift, and she has had a pretty good driving record ever since. 

Sometimes feeling shame and sorrow over our out of control actions can produce more maturity in our lives, but only if we humble ourselves under it and let it change us for good.  Healthy shame comes from those who love us like God does and want to see us grow up rather than stay trapped in feelings of humiliation from past mistakes. Unhealthy shame comes from immature people who want to gain an advantage over us because of a mistake we have made. Paul was trying to teach the church at Corinth that shame/sorrow can be a good thing. We have to be careful not to let it lead us to make more mistakes. Paul told them, “I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance {i.e. “turn away” from their mistakes}.” (2 Cor. 7:9a). Then he says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Cor. 7:10 NIV) At some point we will all be ashamed of something we have done because we are all “fallen.” We can let God grow us up and redeem us or we can get stuck in regret and more bad behavior. Let’s let the pain of shame always turn us back to Jesus. 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!