A SURPRISE E-MAIL (extra entry)

“But now God hath set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” (I Corinthians 12:18)

I came home today in the late afternoon, sat down at the computer, went on-line, and there was an e-mail from someone I did not know. I opened it and read a short but warm and thoughtful e-mail from a man who’d known Gloria Maw many years ago. Gloria Maw was a woman I call a “character”. She was a very dear sister in Christ who passed away over a year ago. The guy had read a blog piece I’d posted about Gloria Maw in April of 2007. I imagine he’d done a Google search for “Gloria Maw” and it brought up a link to my blog piece. This man SO appreciated my piece about a woman he’d known many years in the past that he wrote me a grateful e-mail.

What a blessing it was to get that man’s e-mail today! And, BOY, how TIMELY it was!

It took me years; well DECADES, to accept the unusual style I have; the unusual way I think and look at life. When I started this blog on AOL Journals in early 2006, I described myself as “eccentric”. Over many months I took so much “heat” for that description from friends, acquaintances, and colleagues that when AOL Journals “folded” on Oct. 31, 2008 and this blog found blogspot as its new home and format, I changed my description from “eccentric” to “unconventional”. Well, whether you want to call me “eccentric”, “unconventional”, “edgy”, “different”, “controversial”, “out there”, or whatever, I’m really a combination of all six of those descriptions. And, to quote a woman who used to attend the church I pastor (and who used to run “Daisy’s Discoveries” consignment shop in downtown Framingham and was very active in “recovery” groups), “THAT’S O.K.!”

During this morning’s sermon, I cited from a posting on my blog from about a year ago which was entitled, “Protocol”. I cited from that blog posting with fear and trembling because that posting got a number of people pretty upset, and I definitely brought some grief upon myself for posting it! This morning, I cited it as a sermon illustration and tried to bring forth the positive message I was really trying to say in that posting. So far there have been absolutely no angry confrontations or e-mails from the sermon, so I hope I got my point across!

Ironically, the piece I posted about Gloria Maw in April 2007 also brought some me some angry words from a few people who were very unhappy with some things I’d written. Ironically, it’s often people who know me the best who have the MOST trouble with what I write. I haven’t quite figured that one out! Each time I get one of those, “How could you write that, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!” kind of comments, I reply saying something like, “You may not have appreciated that piece, and you may not have understood that piece. If it hurt and/or offended you, I’m truly sorry, but TRUST me: there were people who greatly appreciated that piece and who actually were HELPED and BLESSED by that piece.”

Today’s e-mail, on a day I kind of indirectly tackled the “controversial blog postings” issue, has SO blessed and validated me and what I do on this blog.

I learned a big life lesson one time while I was a student at Central Bible College. We had a middle-aged professor there who was SO boring. I’ll call her Dr. Sally Snooze. This woman couldn’t teach her way out of a paper bag. I had her for “Introduction to Christian Education”. She used to essentially read the textbook to us. (One time while she briefly stepped out of the classroom, a student stood up and moved the hands of the analog clock FORWARD 20 minutes!) On one occasion, I was mouthing off to some students about what an awful teacher Dr. Sally Snooze was. One male student got very serious. He said, “Dr. Snooze isn’t here for her teaching. She can’t teach. But Dr. Snooze has counseled a lot of girls through very difficult times. She’s really made a difference for them. Her ministry isn’t teaching but GOD USES HER IN OTHER GREAT WAYS.”

Yeah, it’s easy to try to make everything and everyone fit into the little slots we THINK they should fit into. Sally Snooze was no teacher, but thank God she was at Central Bible College! I NEVER said a bad word about her again. She LATER became a missionary to the Far East, and I was happy to support her mission prayerfully and financially.

I know through the years I’ve given many sermons from which some people left and said, “That was the WORST sermon I’ve ever heard in my LIFE; and they PAY this guy for that??!!” while someone else sat and listened to the SAME sermon, and was very grateful, for the sermon caused them to change their plans to cheat on their spouse, or to embezzle money at their job, or something like that.
To use a line from the late Kathryn Kuhlman, “And it’s just LIKE that”.

I’m reading a brand new book by William F. Buckley, Jr. He finished writing it JUST before he died in February of 2008 and his son Christopher edited it and put the finishing touches on it. The book is about Buckley’s friendship and experiences with Ronald Reagan. One interesting part of the book I’ve just read is that these two ultra-conservatives and friends absolutely disagreed about the Panama Canal treaty of the late 1970s. Buckley supported the treaty and thought we should let the Canal go. Reagan absolutely thought the U.S. should keep the Canal and NEVER let it go. These two strongly debated each other about this on “Firing Line”, and yet they remained the best of friends. Who was right? NOT both of ‘em, but they respected each other and agreed to disagree.

I actually ended up writing much more on this posting than I expected to. There’s a lot we can learn from the Buckley/Reagan relationship. Sometimes we have to “agree to disagree”. And, when in one way or another you read a blog posting from me and I’m kind of a Sally Snooze to you, or kind of a “Mr. No-Grace Inyourface” to you, please remember that some soul who read the same piece; got an admittedly unconventional word that was EXACTLY what he or she needed, and THAT person actually left their computer - a little bit closer to God...