I was worried. This past Sunday the speaker for the day was introduced. At first I thought she was a missionary and I was sad as missionaries are not always the most eloquent speakers (and are often quite frankly to me boring). Then, to my horror I heard she was actually a missionary but someone who did work for our denomination supporting missionaries. "Nooooooo!" I screamed inwardly anticipating an even worse experience then I had dared to think before. I prepared myself for the worst . . . and was pleasantly surprised.I can't remember everything she shared but I know that I found several things she said quite interesting. One especially stood out. First, said that our denomination had been surveying our overseas missionaries as part of their commitment to helping each missionary come up with a "health plan:" a plan for them to maintain physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological health. The survey asked a question that went something like this:
Imagine God sitting down and thinking specifically about you. What is the first thing that comes to your mind that He would be feeling towards you?
Our speaker said that the surveyors were surprised to find a high amount of people said that the first word they thought of was "disappointment." Many others said "anger." This troubled me immensely - our missionaries are out there trying to share the love of God but are not feeling it themselves? When 4 or 5 friends had gathered after the service I mentioned that I had been shocked by the survey results. What then shocked me even more was that 2 of the 5 of us mentioned immediately that they too thought the same things!
I guess there are lots of people who may believe in a forgiving Father, but often feel God's condemnation more then his love and grace. I certainly don't want to judge anyone but I wonder how many millions of Christians are out there feeling and thinking the same thing? And more importantly, what can we do about it? If you do the experiment, what words come to your mind?
No comments:
Post a Comment