"The entrance of thy words giveth light (Psalm 119:130)."
Getting Rid of Anger—Part 7
A Tale of Two Pastors
We like to think of pastors as exemplary Christians—honorable, humble and wise. Many are, though none of them are perfect. Sometimes, however, a pastor's behavior is egregious—and this was certainly the case here.
This is the story of a senior pastor and his assistant pastor. The assistant pastor later became a pastoral counselor. I went to him for counseling when I was a fairly new Christian. And he is the source of this story.
The senior pastor made a consistent effort to be disrespectful to his assistant. The verbal abuse continued over a sustained period of time. The assistant pastor, my counselor, responded by being submissive to the authority of his boss and with humility. In other words, he just took the abuse.
You just don't do this.
His anger built up and it reached the boiling point: He told his wife that he was going to church and was going to murder the senior pastor!
Fortunately, his wife intervened. She called another church member, told him what was going on, and that person intercepted the assistant pastor as he arrived at church.
Exactly what happened next was not explained. However, the senior pastor was not murdered. And the assistant pastor was able to break free of the spiritual stronghold of anger that had plagued him.
He broke free by making this simple statement to the senior pastor: "I will apologize for any angry feelings."
The assistant pastor later brought the issue to the attention of the church board and, after a contentious session, the senior pastor was fired.
A link to Part 8 is below.
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