I once had someone get angry at me because I hadn’t come to
visit them when they were sick.
“I thought
I could depend on you!” they complained.
I wasn’t sure how to respond since they were still clearly
suffering – the problem was they hadn’t told me until that moment that they
were in need. I still don’t know how I
was supposed to have figured it out without being told.
Perhaps you heard about the couple who left their church
because no one came to visit them? It
wasn’t that people weren’t friendly… they had lots of friends but years earlier
they had stopped inviting people over because they found it “too taxing to get
the house ready for visitors.” Oh, they
still liked going to people’s houses… they just didn’t want anyone in theirs. Folks thought they were being standoffish and
stopped having them over. Anyway, eventually they got so upset they left that
church… to go to one where nobody even knew their name.
…it’s the principle of the matter.
I once had a gentleman come up to me in the middle of the
service while I was doing sound, and complain that I had the volume on the drums
up too loud… TOO LOUD! I tried to
explain:
a.
The drums did not have microphones so there was
nothing I could do from the balcony…
b.
The drummer, was in fact, not even playing… at
all… not even a little…
Then there was the guy who chased one of my sound techs out
of the building and into the parking lot after a “worship service” he felt was
too loud. The sound tech fortunately
made it to the safety of his car before things escalated further.
I could go on… my point is some people are beyond pleasing.
Thing is, Jesus didn’t try to please everyone either… in
fact, the only person Jesus was committed to pleasing was the Father.
…of course, that got Him nailed to a cross…
There’s a parable in there somewhere…
…just sayin’
