The
blessing of pastoring is the people—hungry to connect with God, eager to learn
of God’s riches, caught up in the sacrificial love and grace of God as they
join the Trinitarian dance that moves outward with love to all the world and inward to rest and enjoyment, living a life of sacrificial praise and worship culminating in
and propelled by the union of neighbors in the peaceful, blessed body called
the Church.
The
curse of pastoring is the people—angry as spoiled children fixated on getting
their own way, even at the expense of the best interests of others and self,
driven by division and one-upsmanship, burning with the world’s lust for power and
entertainment and comfort, isolated in a self-made prison of fear and seeking
to imprison others, standing outside the Trinitarian dance yet calling the
dance steps to those inside.
The
art of pastoring is to look past them—all of them—to the crucified, risen Good
Shepherd who loves them—each of them—and to live and love and dance among them
in the constant direction of his keeping.
2 comments:
Wow, Robert! What an insightful description. I'll be wrestling with this one for a while.
Thanks, brother! I know for me the wrestling never stops ;-)
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