I came away from my morning time with
Father feeling like a long-standing struggle has been resolved.
I often swing between two extremes. On one
side is a confidence that God can use me as a pastor. On the other is an almost
helpless and hopeless awareness of things wrong with me that prove me nothing
of the sort.
Some days, both my pastoring and my pain
seem to be almost plumb[1]
because I am attaching to God in whichever one he is working on with a genuine
desire to be my best on the team. Other times, I don’t even know whether I am
facing things the Father is showing me in the Beatitudinal Program[2] or
confronting the enemy’s schemes to stop me from accepting the training I need.
Lately, I have been combining the imagery
of coach and shepherd to help our home church work together on how our
team/flock is doing. We can never let go of the beauty of the shepherd/sheep
relationship that is all through Scripture. It is the way Jesus wants us to see
our relationship with him, and it is his choice of imagery for how pastors and
churches relate to one another.
At the same time, there are so many aspects
of the coach/team relationship that are familiar to us today that it has some
benefit to add that facet of understanding how things work in each church. It
is this metaphor/simile that opened the door for me to picture what our team is
like right now, including my place in the mix.
Our personal identity is determined by the
team Owner and was set in place before any of us were born. It really has
nothing to do with our life-experience; it has everything to do with the Owner’s
heart. This is about him picking us for his team, including what position each
of us is to play.
But then life happened. We were all on the bus
when disaster occurred. Everyone was hurt. Injuries galore. Incredible
confusion. Brain injuries, PTSD, and lots and lots of pain. Trauma has been no
respecter of persons, so everyone is left dealing with what happened to them
irrespective of who they are on the team.
Triage has tried to sort out the urgency of
all the treatments needed and the nature of what each person’s care should be.
The Owner has it all working, but the injuries of all the teammates means there
is a whole range of how well each person is attached to his purposes, how aware
they are of his activity in helping them, and how they feel about his choice of
treatment.
The one thing that does not change is the
identity of our team and our players. We are who we are as a unit, and we are
who we are in the positions that each person holds. We are just injured.
What this imagery settles for me is that I
am still who I am on the team even when God shows me wounds that need
addressing. My injuries say nothing about who I am, only about what I am
capable of doing at the moment. This means that I am a coach injured in the
same accident as the rest of the team, not a loser because my injuries have
left me unable to be my best as a coach.
What does a good coach do when he discovers
injuries that were hidden behind anesthetic or shock? He lets the owner
prescribe his treatment for healing while he continues to contribute to the
team out of the health that is still working as designed. He leads as far as
his current ability allows, trusts team doctors to contribute treatments to the
players that are beyond his area of expertise, and stays in constant contact
with the Owner about how each player is doing and what they need.
Maybe this is one of those “please-show-me-something-in-words-or-pictures”
moments where Father has again used my love of writing and describing things to
let me see for myself what he wants for our team. I hope it encourages all our
players to be who we are on the team while letting the Owner prescribe the
treatment for our injuries as he sees best. Even while healing continues, we can
contribute to building our relationship with the coach and the team so that we
are helping the healing and training that is going on right now.
I hope that this word-picture also helps
you see your place, position and condition on your local team more clearly.
Maybe it will help you recognize how you can contribute to your own healing and
physiotherapy by joining the treatment the Owner has prescribed for you and
that it will actually encourage the rest of your team that you are doing what
is needed for your injuries and training while everyone else is doing the same
for theirs.
If each of us sees ourselves as the players
the Owner has made us, accepting that we have as much to give the team as the
Owner wants to do through us even when focusing on our own healing is all we
can do, it will still build up and encourage the team that we are joining the
Owner in his work and getting better for the sake of the team.
And, that may sometimes include what the
Owner gives you to encourage your coach during those times that he is more
aware of his injuries than his position.
If we all remember who we are, and who each
teammate is, we will attach to the group dynamic of healing with the
expectation that the Owner is making us a victorious team as we keep in step
with what he is doing among us. I can see how he has encouraged me in this
today, and I hope that my sharing about it, combined with your awareness of his
work in you, will bring more hope, healing, and victory to our lives even
today.
© 2021 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
[1] “Plumb” refers to the “plumbline”
that hangs vertically true. It has been used since ancient times to measure the
vertical line of walls, and to guide wall-builders in building walls that are
vertically true. God uses the imagery of the plumbline to illustrate how he
accurately measures how his people are relating to him, so it is nothing new to
consider the illustration, even if it needs some explaining. Here are the Scriptures
that refer to this: https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=plumb+line&resultspp=250&version=ESV
[2] The “Beatitudinal
Program” is a way of referring to the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12 as it would
be described as a team training program to get every player in their best shape
for the game.
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