Interactions with God #57
Unfortunately, this “Interaction with God” may seem more like an interaction with the devil than with God. Yet, God is in charge. I have no doubt that even though evil was done, God made it work for His plan. For those who are His children, this is ALWAYS true. Yes, God is in control. The devil, in his own foolishness and arrogance, is still working well within God’s purpose. If your life belongs to Him, then EVERYTHING that happens to you, good or bad, IS the Father working to make you as HE sees fit. You did make HIM Lord didn’t you? He doesn’t make mistakes. He doesn’t sleep. He wasn’t out of town when the devil attacked. He is always there, always watching, and ALWAYS working…on us. We, are the great project. We are the reason why He created time and space. We are His bride. We are the Church.
Martha had run into a great deal of difficulty working at the church. By the end of 1990, it had grown considerably. There were 3 women now on staff doing administration work. At that time, someone made a mistake in scheduling or accounting. I don’t remember the exact mistake, but what I do remember is that Martha got blamed. Martha is good at what she does. She also does not have a problem admitting a mistake, not at all. This was not one of those times, so she held her ground. The pastor didn’t like that. Now, Martha wasn’t rude, but she was firm in her position. When a man is struggling with a desire for dominance, this is a problem. After a week or so, the mistake turned out to be something the pastor did. Martha never did not get an apology. He did buy her a plant. Sadly, this was the beginning of a downward spiral.
In the months following that event, tensions increased in the church office. They finally came to a head during the first Iraq war. Martha’s brother was in the Marines at the time, so she was understandably concerned. Combined with her worry and stress at work, things began to take their toll. The pastor didn’t help matters by giving her a hard time for her struggle. At its worst, I went in to talk to him on her behalf. No, joke, he told me that she had mental/chemical problems. I quit for her right there and then. After all the garbage from this guy over the years, I finally realized because of what happened with Martha, that the problem was not me. It was him.
With Martha no longer on staff, the pastor was now unrestrained in his dislike of me. In several months following, I was removed as the “youth guy” in a public meeting where he discussed how awful the youth group was going. When I defended myself, he yelled at me saying this was not about me. Yet, everyone in the room knew, it was. I left the meeting, drove around for hours on my motorcycle and just cried.
God tests His own. These tests are not like the way the world does it. The world will test you to see if you know enough or if you are good enough. God tests you to prove HIS work. He is proving it to you, to the host of heaven and to the world. Though, the world may not see that you passed His test till the sorting happens on judgment day. The tests can be particularly hard at times. When the world hits, though it hurts, you still expect it somewhat. However, when the test comes from those who are responsible, before God, to shepherd you, it reaches a whole new level.
Passing the test is simple. Did you stay on the path with Jesus Christ? It is purely a pass or fail test. Since I am God’s work, not mine, of course I did.
This bad pastor was not my first rodeo. He was my fourth pastor since I began to walk with God in 1984. To the first, I was irrelevant. The second guy was crazy. The third was a scumbag. This guy, the fourth, I didn’t understand. His dislike of me was really odd. He went out of his way to hurt me. Not just then, but even after I left that church. These things, added with several additional pastors over the years ate at me, until an interaction with God on my birthday in 2008. That event is one of my favorite interactions to date, but it will have to wait as I intend to go in order. It is the reason why.