The Great Debate PART 3

I am not a TV junkie. I do like some shows but I really don't have the time to waste. TIVO is the greatest invention and a major blessing for a busy working Mom! I have mentioned several times before I am a reader. I love to read. Now for the most part I do not like happy "fixed up" endings in the novels I read. I do love a happily ever after but I don't like it when authors tie up ALL the loose endings just because it is the end of the book. It is o.k. to me if the hero dies at the end or if the couple doesn't get back together. This is real life! I know in real life not everything is going to be fair or happily ever after. I guess that is why the realist in me loves for the books I read to be REAL. My life for the past few years has resembled one of many suspenseful, romantic, comedy novels I have read all rolled into one. I have seen liars, cheaters, lovers, heros, the powerful, the small, the corrupt, the evildoers, the soldiers, the strong, the strongwilled, men and women of God, satan's finest.... I could go on and on. I literally could give John Grisham a novel that would be a bestseller. More on that on future posts. Seriously, I could not make up characters like the real people that have lived through this situation over the past few years if I tried. Sadly, life is truly weirder than fiction. I said in PART ONE that someone said something to me that stopped me cold and that I would bring it up in PART TWO. Well, I didn't because it seemed to fit this one better. Sometimes people are just ignorant, misinformed...sometimes they are just cruel..but this is someone I truly respect and love.... The conversation went just like this.......

So you quit your job? How does it make you feel?

T:Yes I did....and heartbroken.

Heartbroken? Why in the world would you be heartbroken? This was two years too late...You should be smiling

T: Because I love what I do...whom I was doing it for and for those I won't see everyday..because it hurts

Oh my....seriously....that is your problem you care WAY too much. You should never get that connected

T: Are you hearing YOURSELF...maybe if more people got connected and cared we wouldn't be in this situation

No if you would care less and just do what they PAID you to do you wouldn't have to be hurting so. Isn't that how leadership has been doing for a while now??

T: SERIOUSLY NO SERIOUSLY did you just say do only what they PAY us to do...well that would cut my weekly list down quite a bit...you don't get it..WHAT I do.... what the staff does has nothing to do with pay. If it did we would have left when we haven't gotten raises in years and take so much grief from leaders who don't even know what we look like. Please do not compare me to that kind of leadership. IT IS A HEART ISSUE I WILL AGREE BUT NOT MINE!!!

What you don't seem to get is noone cares...seriously noone cares why should you...so Theresa let me ask you where did caring so much get you?

Now you may think I had some brilliant comeback. Some slamming words of wisdom......SOOOO Where did it get you? hmmm at that very moment I had nothing or I was exhausted.....or........ Now I will not suggest for one minute that we should become hard as titantium and not care. Oh, I would rather die a miserably caring person feeling every bit of the ones I love pains, triumphs, joys and tragedies than say...WHO CARES.......What does this have to do with me? I never like to give the evil one any credit but boy has he been working overtime. Satan loves to keep us busy, keep us distracted, keep us wallowing in our own misery so much that it is impossible to have anything left to give. We spend most of our time SPENT, TAPPED OUT, NOTHING LEFT, EXHAUSTED. Have you ever been so exhausted you couldn't form words that could intelligently and boldly defend your case? That was where I was with this person. And for a moment, just for a slight moment, I must admit I thought about what she had said. Where did it get you? And here is my conclusion to just that one question as I reflect on my years of service and my final week......

• I have never been closer to my Lord than I am right now. No where near where I need to be but closer.
• I have made friends that turned into family. They are literally my sisters and brothers in Christ.
• Family takes care of Family. You mess with my brothers and sisters I will come out fighting. I am not playing.
• Professionally, I learned more than I ever could have had this not happened.
• I worked for a ministry that I truly loved.
• People will lie straight to your face.
• Even those in ministry will fail. Don't focus on them. Focus on Jesus.
• They don't deserve or want the pressure of perfection!
• Noone is perfect especially those who dare to look into their reflection compared to a pure and Holy God!
• I know the difference in playing church and true worship.
• People are hungry for power. It is a drug stronger than any other!
• We invite the world into our church every day.
• The world does not leave just because they get saved.
• The redeemed need help just as much as the lost.
• I have learned better who to trust and who not to trust.
• My children will never be the same from this both good and bad.
  
• I have the worked with the best people in this world. !
• The Lord is still on His throne. He reigns forever.
• Leadership should be praying through every decision.
  
• Nothing can separate His love for me.
• Just because I do not work FOR His house does not mean I can not work in HIS HOUSE!
• God is so good. He's so good to me!
• I wouldn't trade these years even through the pain for anything
• He is coming back one day
• I care because He cares. I love because He first loved me.
  

Trust me that is worth the caring.....that is where it got me!