Grace Community Christian Church

 

Archived Things Above

The Trooper is a Wuss (10/30/06)

"I'd never seen that side of you before, & something inside of me was moved."

How I have grown to love, & hate, those words! They are my all too familiar cursing, & blessing.

Cursing, because it means that up to now, I have been perceived by the speaker in a number of understandable, yet inaccurate, ways.

I'm a big guy. (Believe me, I know it.) And when my hair is cut short, as it normally is, I can be very hard looking, with that rigid, set, Dewar jaw, & those dark, penetrating Clint Eastwood eyes. When I wear my mirror sunglasses, I am frequently mistaken for a state trooper. When I speak in public, I am not terribly inhibited or soft. I was taught, if you've got something to say, people might as well hear it! And yes, I am unapologetically passionate about some things, like what I believe the Bible clearly says about some subjects.

Add all this up, & you've got the making of one very large, arrogant, egotistical, self-righteous, insensitive tyrant of a preacher.

Blessing, because it means the real me has finally broken through. Again.

I had been sharing at a leadership meeting some of the pain one of our church families was going through, a very troubled marriage. My voice cracked with emotion. Tears welled up & slid uninvitedly down my cheek. My heart was breaking for this couple, & it was obvious. In fact, my heart was breaking for all the masks & facades that church people have developed & perfected through the years.

"Why must we wait until our lives totally disintegrate before we invite others in?" I asked.

Given the fact that something deep within her own marriage had died, which no one knew about, my words hit home. Hard. She shared ever so briefly, & vulnerably, stunning us all with her openness. Soon afterward we met to talk about her revelation. And so it was she came to speak my above mentioned cursing & blessing.

My point? Please don't judge me, or anyone else, too harshly based only on what you think you see. I cry. I feel. I doubt. I care. I hurt. I just don't wear those things on my sleeve. I get emotional, but I'm slow to go to gush!

I have given my life to help people get re-connected to the God who loves them very much. And to serving with & learning from the already-connected ones. And to helping people put back together the pieces resulting from the wreckage of wrong choices. It's kind of hard to do that, week in & week out, with a hard, uncaring heart.

Please, on behalf of all the mis-perceived in our midst, assume the best. Look for the other side. Then look some more. See deeply. Be very slow to go to ugly. Years ago, Twila Paris said much the same with the hit song, The Warrior is a Child. I'm called to preach, not sing. But if I were to write my own song, you could probably call it The Trooper is a Wuss.

Whoever it is you're tempted to judge, don't miss the other side. It may not be immediately obvious, but odds are, it really is there.


Jim Dewar --