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Once a piously self-absorbed man walked into the Pastor’s office. He wanted to argue doctrine with the Pastor. Once the Pastor could tell what the man was trying to do, he looked at him and said, “Sir, I have no interest in hearing what you believe.” The befuddled man spoke, “It’s your job to be interested in what I believe. You should discuss these matters with me.” Replied the Pastor, “Again, I have no interest in what you believe. I want to know how willing you are to change what you believe to grow to become more of what Christ is calling you to be.”
Deborah Smith Douglas, in “Staying Awake” (Weavings, July/August 2002), tells of a German art postcard she picked up at a gift shop. In the dreamlike painting, a tightrope walker steps in the night sky, heading, it appears, for the full moon ahead. One end of the rope is attached to the roof beam of a house that the walker has just left, while the other end is held aloft in his hand, attached to nothing. Douglas says:
What is most obvious, though, about the moonlit walker is the serenity and confidence in every relaxed but wholly attentive line of his body. He is paying attention. He is trusting the way. He is headed home.
William Bouwsma wrote that “Christian conversion is … not … an immediate entrance into a safe harbor but rather, though its direction has been established, the beginning of a voyage into the unknown.” Indeed, we “must be willing to disregard [our] vulnerability” and “venture out, even at the risk of making mistakes, for the sake of growth. . . . (“Christian Adulthood,” Adulthood, Ed. Erik Erikson)
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Once a jealous disciple complained to the Master that the Master was showing preferential treatment to another disciple. The jealous disciple spoke, “Master, I am more right in my thoughts than he is, and he makes so many mistakes, then, why do you esteem him more than me?” Said the Master, “My child, you are more right and make fewer mistakes only because you do not love God as much as he does.” The astounded disciple said, “Master! How can you say that such a one that makes so many mistakes and is so in error in his thoughts loves God more than me?” The Master spoke, “Because he is growing and you are not! Even his imperfections result from his passion to keep learning. You make fewer mistakes and esteem yourself more right in your ideas because you have become satisfied and refuse to take the risks necessary to grow.”
A church member complained to her Pastor. “Pastor, you are never satisfied with us. We are weary of you urging us to change. Why can’t you just give us a break?” “Why?” said the Pastor. “Because Scripture says we Christians are People of the Way, not People of the Dead End."
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