YOU NEVER KNOW… [Sa, 9-9-23]

 CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter--YOU NEVER KNOW… [Sa, 9-9-23]

 

Jack Newsome and I used to go together to continuing ed conferences for preachers. We kept thinking that there was someone, somewhere, who could tell us how to do a decent job. We didn’t want others to know that we had no idea what we were doing, so we kept quiet about going to those conferences. On the way home, we would debrief and learn that while it had been a good experience, we still didn’t know how to be decent preacher-pastors. Until Ted Campbell.

Campbell had recently retired from the pastorate at Riverside Church in NYC. He came to Dubuque Theological Seminary for a conference. He told good stories. But more importantly, one day he said, “We clergy always tell one another… well, you never know how much good you’re doing… the problem is, you never know how much harm you’re doing, either.”

Ah, ha! That was the key. I was half-way through a 50 year career, and I found the key to good pastoring. Well, I didn’t find it, I heard it: Do no harm.

If I were a physician, I would have already known that, of course. It’s the first rule of medical practice: First, do no harm. The body wants to heal. Be patient. Yes, there are times for intervention—medicines, surgeries. Some have to be immediate. But your first goal is to be sure you don’t make things worse.

Damaged souls want to heal, too. Soul doctors need to be patient with them. Slapping on a Bible verse or two, or telling a person what to do, might cover up a wound so that it can’t heal. That’s doing harm.

I’ve never been a very good listener. I always wanted to jump in and give advice. I mean, I worked hard and long, got many degrees, so I could learn how to deal with almost anything, and I wanted to get some good out of all that work. Or at least, I wanted to say, since I also learned that I was supposed to be honest, “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard!”

If not totally patient, I learned to be more patient, with individuals. It’s harder to be patient with a group, like a committee, but I tried to be more patient even in those settings. I was always a bottom-line kind of guy: we know we need a new typewriter, so let’s just go ahead and get the dumb thing bought. But I learned that others take a while to get to that bottom line. Everyone in the meeting wants to tell about the time they bought a typewriter. So I tried to listen even to that.

Sheesh, I have only 79 more words to resolve this [I try to stay within 500 words], and I don’t know how. Should we do nothing, to be sure we do no harm? That’s not possible.

I guess the main point is: Don’t use “You never know how much good you’re doing” as an excuse for wearing your heavy boots in a flower pot, because the reverse is also true—you never know how much harm you’re doing.

 

It is not necessary to evaluate everything you do. Do no harm, and let God sort out the rest.

John Robert McFarland