Parson To Person
This is the second installment in my second 'season' of an 'imaginative/non-fictional' series. Earlier installments are available in the archives menu. We'll have the whole series posted in one place soon.
How are Sarah and I doing? I didn’t know how to answer the question. Certainly our year didn’t compare to what Peggy and Roger had endured, but it had been the worst year I could remember in our nearly 20 years of marriage.
“We’re fine”, I heard myself say. That’s the ‘pastor-standard-answer’. Whenever someone in the congregation asks the pastor how he’s doing, the answer seems as if it needs to be ‘fine’ or some equivalent. We weren’t fine. It had been a year since the Dukes and the Wrights had launched their campaign to have me removed as the pastor at Covenant. A dozen or so congregational meetings later, it felt as if we were no closer to seeing an end to the mess – other than the fact that, for the first time, I had begun thinking about resigning just to spare my family from any more of this nonsense. My thoughts wandered the direction of even more despair when I considered that Peggy and Roger were among my strongest supporters, and here they were engaged in a battle of real life and death. My situation seemed so ridiculously trivial in comparison.
“Brian, you’re a great pastor”, Peg offered. “Roger would not be where he is today – a believer in Christ – had it not been for your encouragement to me over the years. So many times I was ready to throw in the towel. There were even Christians telling me to divorce him because he was an unbeliever and I was unequally yoked. Evelyn Dukes for one. But you shared with me what the scriptures say about an unbelieving spouse being sanctified by the faith of a believing spouse. Do you remember that? Well, I held onto that promise. God came through.”
“Well, it has not really been fine”, I ventured. “We’re tired. I’m tired of seeing Sarah, Dani and Abby subjected to all of this. I think about throwing in the towel myself some days.”
At that moment we were both startled. Roger reached over and grabbed my wrist. His eyes were wide open and focused on me. He spoke very clearly, “You hang in there, Brian. My family needs you. Your church family needs you. Don’t you give up!” Those were the first words he had said in several days. Peg leaned over and kissed Roger’s cheek. A tear ran out of the corner of his eye.
I patted his hand on my wrist and said, “Thank you, my friend.”
How are Sarah and I doing? I didn’t know how to answer the question. Certainly our year didn’t compare to what Peggy and Roger had endured, but it had been the worst year I could remember in our nearly 20 years of marriage.
“We’re fine”, I heard myself say. That’s the ‘pastor-standard-answer’. Whenever someone in the congregation asks the pastor how he’s doing, the answer seems as if it needs to be ‘fine’ or some equivalent. We weren’t fine. It had been a year since the Dukes and the Wrights had launched their campaign to have me removed as the pastor at Covenant. A dozen or so congregational meetings later, it felt as if we were no closer to seeing an end to the mess – other than the fact that, for the first time, I had begun thinking about resigning just to spare my family from any more of this nonsense. My thoughts wandered the direction of even more despair when I considered that Peggy and Roger were among my strongest supporters, and here they were engaged in a battle of real life and death. My situation seemed so ridiculously trivial in comparison.
“Brian, you’re a great pastor”, Peg offered. “Roger would not be where he is today – a believer in Christ – had it not been for your encouragement to me over the years. So many times I was ready to throw in the towel. There were even Christians telling me to divorce him because he was an unbeliever and I was unequally yoked. Evelyn Dukes for one. But you shared with me what the scriptures say about an unbelieving spouse being sanctified by the faith of a believing spouse. Do you remember that? Well, I held onto that promise. God came through.”
“Well, it has not really been fine”, I ventured. “We’re tired. I’m tired of seeing Sarah, Dani and Abby subjected to all of this. I think about throwing in the towel myself some days.”
At that moment we were both startled. Roger reached over and grabbed my wrist. His eyes were wide open and focused on me. He spoke very clearly, “You hang in there, Brian. My family needs you. Your church family needs you. Don’t you give up!” Those were the first words he had said in several days. Peg leaned over and kissed Roger’s cheek. A tear ran out of the corner of his eye.
I patted his hand on my wrist and said, “Thank you, my friend.”
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