My Leadership Wound

This is a hard one from me. This is my first blog that actually speaks of me and my personal experience.

When I reflect on my life it is interesting that I’ve ended up doing what I do. Being a minister is strange for me. I’ve had a pretty easy life compared to most. My parents are relatively normal, along with the rest of my family. But I have been hurt in my life. The problem is the only people who really ever attacked me in my life have been those who worked in the church. ‘Spiritual leaders’ have caused me more pain than anyone else has ever.

My church experience was pretty great up until I moved back to my home province in ’99. Before then I was pretty care free. I always had great fun with my youth pastor and other pastors in the past. But things were different in this next church. I was always taught to respect people not just because they have a certain title or position but for their character and who they are. I remember hearing the story of my grandfather and his encounter with a pastor one Sunday morning. My grandfather ran up and said the pastor’s first name. The pastor proceeded to correct him and say, “You mean pastor”. My grandfather was a humble man who was successful in his job with the military, and simply responded, “well, than it is Lieutenant Commander Thompson to you.” I was always taught it is who you are and what you do that makes you the man that you are not some prefix or suffix by your name.

This one particular pastor I had used to scream in my face. He would say things like, “what are you stupid”. I remember him on more than one occasion physically assaulting a kid. One that was not from a Christian home, had some issues in life and now is no longer in the church. I remember one youth day this particular kid was asking some question about why we weren’t taking part in the interdenominational youth service. The pastor proceeded to attack this kid. I stepped in because I didn’t think it was right that he was being attacked. The pastor’s simple argument was don’t question me I’m the pastor, God’s anointed. This really rubbed me the wrong way. Eventually, I said something stupid, although I think it is true, still probably could have been said with more wisdom. I proceeded to say, “just ‘cause your appointed, doesn’t mean you’re anointed.” I later apologized. The relationship never improved. When I was in grade twelve and just about to head off to Bible College there was another encounter. This one led to me not going to youth, my father refused to dawn the doors of that church and my grandfather’s resignation from the church board. It wasn’t pretty. The youth pastor was eventually went to another church.

The thing was I still always sought the approval of this youth pastor. No matter what I did in trying to be the youth that earned his realationshp, without comprising the ideals my family taught me, wasn’t good enough. My roommate second semester was from the same youth group as me. He and this youth pastor had a great relationship, which I am happy that they did. This pastor came in and said hi to him and was talking to him. I proceeded to say hello. He turned, looked at me, ignored what that I said hi and continued talking to my roommate and then walked out of the room. That was probably the most painful moment of my life. Makes you feel like dirt. The person who you want approval from totally snubs you.

Growing up my father, being in the military wasn’t around a whole lot. The thing I wanted more than anything was a father figure. My first youth pastor was like the older brother I never had and I learned a lot from him. Here I am in a new church and wanting nothing more to have that experience again but BOOM the door gets slammed in your face.

This wasn’t the last of my experiences with pastors. One situation was when I was in Bible College. This particular pastor was mad at me for leaving his church and went to the district and school to have it put on my record that I was bad or something like that. What he didn’t know is that the Bible College asked me to leave in order to get more experience. Then recently I had another minister attack me and want my job, credentials and my head on a platter.

This has caused the position of leadership to be very very difficult for me. I have problems asserting authority when it is needed because I am scared of coming across like those people who have wounded me deeply. The church is a sticky place for me. The one place that I felt safe and everyone should feel became a place of pain. I have problems trusting ministers. It has caused me to become defensive and closed off. I am unwilling to trust them. I am working on this. Saying this, I know that the issues I have pale in comparison to others experiences, I’ve seen the Fifth Estate specials. But I think my story here might resonate with others.
Part of the cure has been surrounding myself with healthy leaders. The summer before my last year of Bible College I got a job with a great staff. I learned so much and it brought me to a place of beginning to heal the leadership wound. I will always remember Rob Morris and Rick Grundy. They really changed my life. Recently I’ve got to know Richard Vander Vaart, a minister of the Christian Reformed Church in a neighbouring town. Slowly I’ve been able to begin to trust and open up. I am not totally healed but I am on my way.

I have run into so many who have similar type stories. No wonder there are so many ‘revolutionaries’ (George Barna’s book on people who don’t attend church but yet are changing the world for Jesus). I think of those who have walked away because of the wound that leaders have given. If it had not been for my strong family, two fantastic women from my church and the great years I had in church before this encounter I probably wouldn’t be doing what I am doing today. There are people who I grieve for who will never dawn the doors of the church because of the different things done or said to them by their church leaders.

Not trying to point the finger. I know I have inflicted some wounds of my own. I think the difference is that as leaders and even as Christians all together we need to recognize and then rectify these mistakes. We are all human. We all make mistakes. I get that, trust me I do. There is something to be said, though, about recognizing your folly, fixing it, and learning from biblical leaders the way should lead. The Bible is pretty clear that spiritual leaders will be held more accountable. I don’t want it to be said of me what Jesus said of the Pharisee’s. I want my life to not just be about appearing clean but about being clean on the inside.

Don’t inflict the same wounds I’ve endured. Raise up healthy leaders. Choose the people you follow carefully. And extend grace too. We all make mistakes.

Disciplewha...?

Discipleship has really been on my mind lately. Not just because I read a book on it either. But I have been examining what I am doing. What is my role? What should be my priorities? I have always fought myself when it comes to the numbers game. Being in the town that I am in has really helped me in that regard. Even though discipleship is touted at youth pastor forums and other church settings it still seems to be a distant though in our minds, though we say it is not.

I think it is great that we talk all the time about how Jesus loves us, how he saved us and those sort of things, but when the people in our congregations don’t even believe in the fall, how could they ever believe they need to be saved from it? So Jesus becomes what the world says he is a crutch. He gives us that, “Stick, gooey, sweetness” Feeling, to quote the prayer from my Bible College’s Dean. When I look at the life of Jesus there seemed to be a process in discipleship. The twelve disciples didn’t accept Jesus as their “Lord and Saviour” then choose to follow him. NO. There was a curiosity which caused them to follow Jesus when He called. It was half way through the ministry of Jesus before Peter admitted that he was the Messiah and that was only because the Holy Spirit revealed it to him.

It was a long process that even led to the disciples believing Jesus was the messiah. Yet, we have this expectation that we can tell our friends and family one time about Jesus or bring them to church; they say a little prayer and BOOM! Their life is forever changed. That rarely happens. It certainly didn’t happen to those closest to Jesus. Think about for a moment those were the ones who heard all the teaching, say people healed and demons cast out of people.

Is it possible that the reason only 1 in 10 youth stay in the church after graduating because we were calling them Christians before they actually were? In Mark 4 Jesus repeatedly talks about farming and how it relates to the Kingdom of God. Jesus talks about how things must take root. Roots don’t suddenly appear after one prayer but it takes a little work. The great news is that Jesus talks about us continually spreading seed and suddenly we have a crop and we’re not sure how we got it. I think I knew how that happens... sneaky little Jesus!

In Tony Jones book, Postmodern Youth Ministry, he speaks of a tradition that occurred in Christian community, Anagni, in 290 A.D. There was a boy named Lucius who heard about Christ from his friend Marcus. After Lucius was convinced that Christ seemed to be the better option in life when it came to gods Marcus took him to church... had your there for a moment. Nah ah ah. Actually, after Lucius said that he would like to join this community Marcus connected him with Gaius, one of the elders from the Anagni community. FOR TWO YEARS they met twice a week and talk about all things theology. It wasn’t until after this period of time that he was allowed in church! Now that may seem crazy but we are just getting started. You see that wasn’t the end of the discipleship road. Near the end of every service they would basically ask poor Lucius to leave. This went on for many months. You see only the baptized were allowed in the room because they were taking communion/Lord’s supper/ sacrament, whatever you want to call it. Meanwhile Lucius was continuing to meet with Gaius. After Lucius third year of Catechism (oral instruction to put it simply) was baptized.

Seems like a long road? Understand I am not saying this is better because it is older. What I am trying to say is that salvation, baptism and the Lord’s Supper were things to be taken very very seriously. I believe we have lost some of that with our quick say the prayer salvation, lack of teaching, ready to go baptisms and ready to serve communion. There are serious ramifications for people who take of the Lord’s Table without understanding.

Personally, I believe that part of the problem with Sunday morning worship time is that we let too many people be involved. Now I am not saying we need to turn people away at the door. But maybe do the ol’ temple thing and have an observing area. If we helped the people in our churches to understand that this is a process of learning, repeated sanctification and a way of life we might find that Sunday mornings would be a dynamic time with God. Our youth would not be falling away like flies but would be rooted. Lord helps us to be like the farmer who continually spreads the seed.

When the back bone goes the body shrinks!

I just finished reading Mitch Albom’s book Have A Little Faith. It is an interesting story of his faith journey. In the book I was challenged by the two lives, one a rabbi the other an inner city pastor. What struck me, and what struck Albom was how these two men changed so many people’s lives because of relationship. This subject also affected me some because I am also reading John Maxwell’s, Relationships 101 What Every Leader Needs to Know. Relationship, as far as leadership goes, has been on my mind a lot. As I read Albom it struck me that relationship was the key to both the Rabbi and the Pastor. What I noticed was the simple fact that they made time for everyone no matter what was happening around them. They saw their call more important than their own needs. They put others in front of themselves.

This is something I honestly struggle with. At times I am impatient and focused on my task opposed to focusing on the people I am doing it for or even forget about the greater call, the people God has called me to. There are time when I don’t want to go to the dirty or smelly places. I don’t want to go to the dangerous spots. I put myself before those I need to reach. More than that, though, these two spiritual leaders taught me about proximity. Jesus placed himself in the disciple’s lives. Jesus was present in the community. I want to be that. I want to do that. I do not want to be self seeking but follow the example Jesus has set out for me.

When I think of Pastors in my own community, the ones that seem to be affective, I notice a similarity. They all have proximity. I always see Brian Horrobin walking, running, biking around town. He seems to know everyone. His church is open for tons of community events. He even won citizen of the year. That is proximity. I think of Richard Vander Vaart who has always made time for me and my wife. He knows everyone too! It might be a Dutch thing, not sure but I think it has to do with proximity. Riding around with police, being present in the community, these are the things that change people’s lives.

In Albom’s book the Rabbi is always telling stories. When Albom asked the Rabbi how do you do what you do when no one seems to care the rabbi just told a simple story of a sales man who every day would go to the same house and get the door slammed in his face. Finally, one day he goes and the guy says stop coming by here, spits in the sales man’s face and slams the door. The sales man takes out a hanky and simple says, “It must be raining”. People may reject you because of the truth you proclaim but that does not change the way God views them. He loves them and wants them in relationship with Him. When they spit in Jesus face Jesus didn’t decide, ‘do you know what I don’t need to do this cross thing for a bunch of people who spit on me’. Instead, Jesus turns the other check and lets them spit on that one too. He went to the cross any way.

This rabbi would call everyone in his church every week, if he didn’t see them in person already. The Pastor in inner city Detroit invited drug addicts to sleep in his church and even his home. The rabbi was with the same church for six decades. The Pastor, even when funding disappeared, continued to preserver through the hard times because that is where God called him to be, with the down and out. If we lose proximity we lose the back bone of ministry and the church. When the back bone goes the body shrinks!

A Personal Touch

I was thinking about outreach today. This might have been because I watched a short little video on a certain type. I thought about all those times I have received flyers in the mail where it shows angels throwing people into the fires of Hell. Boy o’ boy do those make me feel compelled to join the ‘Christian cause’.

This particular clip talked about mailing out tracks. Now I am not saying this is a bad thing by any sorts BUT if this is the sole outreach strategy of your church there are some flaws in your thinking. I am sure that these handy dandy pamphlets reach people. There is no argument there. The issue is, when we sacrifice our actual reaching out for pamphlets we sacrifice a large part of our Christian mandate.

When I look at the life of Jesus I see someone whose life was dedicated to reaching people. Whether it is the disciples that followed him or the people who heard his sermons, there was this person to person connection. When I look how Jesus not only spoke to Zacchaeus but ate and fellowshipped with him I see a personal faith. It would have been easy for Jesus to have written down on Papyrus his Good News to the world and handed it out on the streets. Instead he walked and talked with the people. He spoke to the dirty and marginalize. He discussed and debated with the rich an educated. Jesus embodied the Good News.

The Apostle Paul, I am sure, could have stood on the corner and preach in Athens a second time but he realized it didn't work so well the first. He had to changed tactics. As Paul walked through the market he took in the culture, he examined his surroundings. The most important thing he did was go to where the people were. Paul went to the hangout spot where all the thinkers, philosophers and spiritual leaders met to discuss. Paul knew from his previous experience that this was the way to go. Paul learned the culture and used it to his advantage in speaking to the people. Paul personally took the personal Saviour to the people.

We live in a culture that reads less and less every year. That is why advertisers use certain words and certain fonts with certain cheesie exploding, spiky, yellow things to get their point across. There are some people out there who do read stuff from the mail… I am not one of them.

Look at other religions. Mormonism is growing like crazy and it is not because their belief system makes sense. They are present in the community, they invite themselves to your home, they will talk with anyone and they own hotels... I am not saying that we need to copy the Mormon philosophy on outreach; where the Church has sacrificed the personal touch for websites and handouts we need to find our way back to the Jesus method.

Judaism takes from the words of Moses in Leviticus 19:18 to love your neighbours. This is echoed by Jesus in Matthew 19 and 22. Jesus also called us to "go". These are commands that call for an action, a personal action.

With all the screwed up things that are being portrayed as 'Christian' on TV and the net the world needs to see that 'Christians' are not all crazy. We don't all picket at PRIDE parades’ or blow up abortion clinics. People need to know that we are not all money grabbers, schemers, pedophiles, obnoxious and sell special holy water for a donation to our ministry. If every Bible believing Christ would simple be the hands and feet of Christ we could break the stigmas that surround the faith. It is time to combine our Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy and reach people with the Good News of Christ just as Jesus and the apostle Paul did: With a personal touch.

Some Quotes

“Not everything that counts can be counted.”
A sign in Albert Einstein’s office at Princeton

If you would like to speak to others with authority, you must first speak to God with intimacy.”
John Baker

“…Unless people are convinced that the Bible is authoritative, true, inspired, and the very words of God, over time they will read it less frequently, know it less fully, and trust it less surely.”
Why We’re Not Emergent.

“As one of my friends often says: ‘If you study the Bible and it doesn’t lead you to wonder and awe, then you haven’t studied the Bible.’”
Rob Bell

“Five Chapters a day keeps the pastor away.”
Leonard Sweet

“If god wanted me to touch my toes, He would have put them on my knees.”
T-shirt

“To flee into invisibility is to deny the call. Any community of Jesus which wants to be invisible is no longer a community that follows him.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“’I mean they are our kids and all.’… ‘But really they belong to God. Terri and I had sex, but that’s it. I don’t know how to make a human being. God makes a human being.’… ‘I guess what I am saying is, one day, I’ve got to introduce Chris to his real Father. And I’m not talking about the mailman.’”
John MacMurray

“The parents may believe what they need is a community center to keep their teenagers off the streets. In reality, what they need is to have Christ as the head of their home and to raise their children using God’s standard instead of the world’s.”
Spiritual leadership

“it is not what you keep from a child that will save him, nor what town you move him to. It is what you put into him in the first place.”
New York Times editorial after Littleton

“There is only one reason you should be a Christian. Because it’s true. Not because it’s good for you; not because you’ll be healed if you believe it; not because it brings peace and goodwill into the world. The only reason you should be a Christian is because God is god and because Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Leonard Sweet

“Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective.”
Rob Bell

We are more impressed by a church of 4,000 people who have no clue about God’s character and His expectations, than by a church of 100 deeply committed saints who are serving humankind in quiet but significant ways.”
Geaorge Barna

“This church… has survived a great deal. Car Wrecks, cancer, extramarital affairs, some bad theology, and the like. But, much like the small town that it’s in, it has taken care of its own. It has mourned with those who mourn. It has delivered meals. It has made countless hospital visits. It has, for the most part, spoken truth and preached the gospel of Christ crucified. It has come alongside single mothers… I find myself, this morning, very proud of the church and its people.”
Why We’re Not Emergent.

“A church community which does not call sin sin will likewise be unable to find faith when it wants to grant forgiveness of sin.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The greatest sin of the church today is not any sin of commission or sin of omission, but the sin of No Mission.”

“Those who are in love with community, destroy community; those who love people, build community.”
Dietrich Bonhoffer

“When action-oriented compassion is absent, it’s a tell-tale sign that something’s spiritually amiss.”
Becoming A Contagious Christian

“Methodist founder John Wesley suggested that it is impossible to hold a conversation lasting more than thirty minutes without saying something that shouldn’t be said.”
Leonard Sweet

“When God’s people are like ‘David’s’ in worship, the world sits up and takes notice, a concept that is the single, most important principle of worship evangelism.”
Sally Morgenthaler

“Here lies Ezekial Aikle Age 102 The Good Die Young”
Epitaph in East Dalhousie Cemetery. Nova Scotia

“On one occasion a man who was under the control of a demon lunged at Martin, trying to bite him. Martin challenged the demon by thrusting his fingers into the man’s mouth. The contact with the holy man was so unbearable that the demon had to escape. But because its exit through the mouth was shut off, the demon had to leave through the anus in the midst of a ‘discharge from the bowels’”
Ron Kydd

“If you’re concerned about your dignity, think about this: Where’s the dignity in being hung naked on a tree? Where’s the dignity in kneeling down to wash the dirtiest parts of someone’s body? Where’s the dignity in being born in a manger?” Leonard Sweet

“Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, it you don’t have any doubts, you are either kidding yourself or asleep.”
Frederick Buechner

“Look in the mirror before you look out the window."
Chris Seay

The anti blogs bog

I've really got into this book I just started reading, Why We're Not Emergent (by two guys who should be). It is pretty good. Even though it dises some of my favourite authors (Sweet, Bell, McManus), it is bang on. We have replaced our Orthodoxy with Orthopraxy. Or at least that is what seems to be the case among many of my peers. In this new revolution of Orthopraxy, while forsaking the Orthodoxy, there seems to be this reformation, of sorts, that is being pushed forward by the blog world. How Luther used comics in the papers in order to get his message out seems to be the same type of thing that is occurring now with blogs. Although, there does seem to be 100% less images of people pooping in the Popes hat (reference Luther's comics if you don't know that this means). I think the difference lies in the attention the author gives to the content.

The thing is, the blog has not only become the tool to get our thoughts out to the world but it has also become the weapon and enemy. I know too many people who, while pastoring, slammed their employer, church, friends and denomination while using language that, putting philosophic semantic views aside, has great negative connotation and are things you would not expect one in the ministry to type.

Back to the book I’m reading. One of the Co-Authors, Ted Kluck, writes about the time he was driving D.A Carson around for a conference at his church. He and Carson begin a discussion about this new blogger revolution. In regards to blogs D.A said, "You have a thought ad then three minutes later it's published for the world to digest. And then another three minutes you have anonymous folks posting messages about how wonderful you are. It tends to inflate one's sense of importance." I have never heard of D.A Carson before this book but I do think he is really on to something. When I write a sermon for youth or Church I think about the theological ramifications of what I say. I try to be as clear a can. Present my message in such a way that there is no confusion about the message (although, I am not always successful). I try not to attack other people or use language that would offend, even though I might sometimes feel like it. You can't use semantics as an excuse forever. This however is not the case in many of my contemporaries. I read some of the stuff out there and I wonder why in the world someone would put that out for the world to see. The internet is not your clothes line.

Whether it is that there is just no point, simple heresy, or just pure none sense, there are certain things that don't need to be posted to the world. Do we think so highly of ourselves that the world needs to know our every issue, pain, intolerance or thought? Even as I write this I feel as though I am being hypocritical for the simple fact that, should anyone truly care what I have to say. The reality is I think people need to spend a little less time worrying about what their next blog should say and a little more on their heart. If they are so bent out of shape by others over emphasis on the orthodox then maybe instead of letting the world now how intellectually superior you are because it is, ‘all about being the hands and feet’ you should spend more time actually living it. There are many theologians who I do not totally agree with everything they teach or believe but yet I still respect them. This is not because I want to keep friends but because they actually live out what they say they believe. They are not just talk. There are too many talkers and not enough doers. Don’t stand high on your pedestal pointing fingers at those you don’t agree with. You might find that pedestal might crack and you’ll end up on your knees. I dare say your Orthodoxy defines your Orthopraxy and vise versa. Stop inflating your head with words and begin to give your opinion through your actions! Blogs are not the enemy- your fingers are! Type slower and think about the ramification of what you are putting out for the world to read.

Easy breezy beautiful Cover.... Boy

Have you ever tried to cover something up? Kids do it all the time. Hey run around and end up breaking something and try to cover it up. They try to meticulously place the broken item back where it was and in a special position so that you can’t notice. I do this all the time in my own life. I will screw something up and I will try to put things back the way they were so, hopefully, no one will notice that something is wrong.

Adam and Eve tried to do that in the Garden. Eve ate the fruit of ‘the knowledge of good and evil’ and then fed it to Adam (never trust a woman who takes with animals. I learned that from ‘Smallville’). When they ate the fruit the realized they were naked... like really naked. Suddenly they realized they had done something wrong, covered their nakedness and tried to hide from God. Hiding from God never works. God found them, revealed their sin and protected them from themselves. Still Adam and Eve were stuck with the consequences, the wages of sin.

There is another story of the ultimate cover up, David and Bathsheba. Obviously David had never seen CSI (or King’s for that fact, it is about him after all). It was spring so David did what all the other kings did this time of year, sent men out to war. 2 Samuel 11 records, “One evening David got up from his bad and walked around on the roof of the palace”. It is never good to walk on roofs... notice how bad stuff always happens on roofs. “From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, ‘Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’” At this David should have known, don’t rub another man’s rhubarb. Obviously, David wasn’t Canadian. David takes Bathsheba to the love shack and helps people understand why it is called that (Thax B-52’s). She got Prego and David was thinking “O no, how do I get out of this one”.

What they really need was Maury Polvich. He could have done one of his ‘who is the Daddy’ shows. “David you are the father”. Bathsheba runs to the green room crying. Uriah is held back by the security guards and David goes on a rant on how it is his baby and he’ll support it (said it an almost unintelligible ghetto like voice).

David tries to cover his tracks. “So David sent this word to Joab: ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite’...The David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house and wash your feet.’ Uriah, unknowingly to David, was a man of honour was not about to go and sleep in his house eating a drink while his men slept in tents on the ground. Plan A failed, time for plan B. David invited Uriah, before he headed back to war, to dine with him. David tried his hardest to get Uriah drunk (with jell-o shots I think, but don’t quote me) thus tricking him to sleep with Bathsheba. I am betting that Bathsheba is not feeling great about herself. The King can’t even trick her own husband to sleep with her. Even when Uriah was drunk he still went outside the city and slept on his matt.

Plan A flopped and now plan B flopped. David is getting desperate. He needs to cover his tracks. He can’t let anyone see that he did something wrong. We’ve all been there. We do something stupid and then end up doing something even more stupid (or studiper) just to cover up what we’ve done. Really we are worse off than if we would just admit it our mistake from the beginning.
“In the Morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, ‘Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.’” Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky, David not only is David a home wrecker now he can add murderer to the list of infractions.

Worst than these things, David had no shame. “When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of Mourning was over, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD”.

David the Hero, the mighty Champion over Goliath, the man with so much integrity that he would not slay God’s anointed king, Saul, has become David the slime ball. You can’t hide from God. David would have heard the stories of Adam and Eve and how they could not hide their shame from God. But yet David tried. God brings people along like Nathan. You can read about him in 2 Samuel 12. Nathan is a tricky fellow himself. He tells a David a story to which David responded with burning anger against the man in the story. David said, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

There are times in life that you wish you never said anything. I wonder if David knew what was happening as soon as he spit those words out of his mouth. Maybe he was totally oblivious to all that was happening. One thing that we can know for sure is that David was guilty of his trespass against both Bathsheba and Uriah. Nathan said, “You are that man!” UH-OH someone’s been caught. David is like the kid who sneaks chocolate pudding unaware that it is all over their face. The child’s mother asks if they ate the pudding, knowing full well that they did, while the child denies even know there was pudding. The evidence, however, is all over the child’s face. (This pudding talk is making my hungry... be back after lunch).

David’s sin has been revealed. It could have been so easy if he would have admitted his folly to God from the beginning but pride got in the way. “Pride is a foolish game that we all play, because we’re all nothing more than broke, weak and frayed”. David was exposed and repented. I am sure if David could do what, unfortunately, Cher sang about and ‘turn back time’ I am sure at this point he would have chose a different path.

We have this challenge every day. We can admit our sins to God and if necessary one another or be exposed when your day of judgement comes. I think prefer the prior. When we try and cover our sins we end up make things worse. For that time on the people in the kingdom knew what David had done and when people read the Holy Scriptures they are able to read of the shamefully things that David did. Even ‘the man God’s own heart’ found himself unable to repent on crouched knee until he was exposed. Repent, be free, rid yourself of pride and don’t kill anyone named Uriah (We are running out of Amish boys).