When Harry Truman was thrust into the presidency at the death of F.D.R., Sam Rayburn gave him some fatherly advice; “From here on out you’re going to have lots of people around you. They’ll try to put a wall around you and cut you ff from any ideas but theirs. They’ll tell you what a great man you are, Harry. But you and I both know you ain’t.”

When I read that I thought of the importance of having a friend who knows “you ain’t”

Such is true in the pastoral office as well. We are tempted to think that we are really important, and that even when we sin, we are still “holy by ordination.” We are surrounded by people who tell us that we are “so wonderful and so Godly” when we know that we aren’t The value of our support group is revealed in that we know that there are several humans who don’t take us so seriously, and know that we might be able to fool our churches, but we can’t fool them.

So, when someone says . . . “My, how wonderful you are!” The other three of us know “you ain’t.” And also . . . When someone says . . .

“My, what a poor excuse for a pastor you are!” The other three of us also know that “you ain’t”

You are a person

You are a human

You are a sinner

You are a struggler

You are a minister

You are someone for whom Christ died . . . . And that makes you very special.

Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances dictate.

Thanks to WITandWISDOM(tm) – May 24, 2000 subscribe-wit-wisdom@xc.org