In college, I was involved in a ministry that was floundering, some said dying. In many ways it was (and still is) a really wonderful place doing many wonderful things, but there was weakness and division and very little unity. Everyone had separate visions and different plans and various things they thought needed to be fixed to make it better. Though no one wanted to say it, the real problem was our head leader, Bonnie, a wonderful woman who had a true heart for ministry but who feared change and feared conflict more.
We all grew incredibly frustrated and sat through long meetings that, though well meaning, did painfully little. We had a staff member who finally decided that it was her job to start openly disagreeing with Bonnie, saying to her face (in the bad way) what was wrong with certain decisions and that she did not support or agree with particular directions that Bonnie made. The thing was, in many ways and on many points, this staff member was right and I agreed with her. Though I didn’t support her tactics, I shared all of her frustrations and many of her opinions. But she was pushy and gave her opinion when it wasn’t invited and tried to have influence in other departments and tried to correct up the chain of command. She was of course asked to leave.
If you, my reader, are someone who fears conflict and runs away and uses tact as an excuse to stay silent when you should speak, this is not for you. God bless you, but close this blog and go consider Ephesians 4:15. This is for those of us who like to shoot our mouths off or tell other people what to do in the name of truth or being helpful. I think many of us really do believe that it is our job to say what we think is the right answer. If something is going on around us, if someone is doing wrong or making a wrong decision or doesn’t see the answer, we consider it our mandate as speakers of the truth to tell them. But the thing is, we want to it in places where: 1) our opinion hasn’t been invited and 2) God hasn’t given us leadership.
We use prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Nathan as excuses to shoot our mouths off, saying that sometimes God raises someone up to speak truth that people do not want to hear, to say what is uninvited, and to be often little liked. Yes, you’re right. SOMETIMES God does call someone to that. And when He does, He is usually quite clear with His instructions. Abundantly so. Annoyingly so. If you think God is calling you to be the bearer of difficult, uninvited truth, you might want to try saying no a few times first to see is He was really serious, because if He actually wants you to do that job, He’ll come back and badger you about it again. Moses and Samuel know.
I do believe that we are called to speak the truth in love, but to those with whom we have built deep relationship. To those with whom we have credibility. To those by whom we have been asked.
If God really has given you divine wisdom, maybe we should thank him for it and then use it to make OUR OWN lives/ministries so healthy that people struggling can’t help but ask what we’re doing right. If that staff member had taken all of those opinions and applied them to her own department, and if she really had been right, then her department would have been so healthy and vibrant and growing that Bonnie would have had no choice but to go and ask her what her thoughts were and what pans she had that were working so well.
Imagine two farmers. One is a good farmer and one is not. The good farmer sees that his neighbor is a bad farmer and that his fields are dying. He can either: tend to his own fields and make them so healthy that the other farmer can come to him for help, or go and try to tell the other farmer what to do. Which will work better? If he goes to push his opinion on the bad farmer, EVEN IF he is right, the bad farmer is probably going to get mad and tell him to go away, because the bad farmer’s fields are not the good farmer’s responsibility. God hasn’t given those to him. God gave him his own fields. If he does force his opinion and makes the bad farmer mad, then when the bad farmer realizes his fields are dying and needs help, HE STILL WON’T go to the good farmer because he doesn’t like him. However, if the good farmer tends to his own fields and uses his correct answers to make them healthy, then when the bad farmer realizes his fields are dying and needs help, he will come to the good farmer and invite his opinion.
What answers do I think I have that I want to force on someone who hasn’t asked? Am I actually applying those in my own life? We need to be careful before we consider ourselves prophets. We are told they we shouldn’t only be hearers of the word, but also doers. Maybe we need to remember that we also shouldn’t only be SPEAKERS of the word, but also doers.
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