It rests on a public role of preaching the Word, correcting, rebuking, and encouraging with great patience and careful instruction. I learned Saturday night that my younger brother in Idaho attempted suicide after drinking all night Friday. I badly needed your words about troubled loved ones. Most people who approach pastors expect us to speak of spiritual realities. Many would be disappointed if our Bibles remained closed and our knees straight.
Human complexities can be as impossible to untangle as a child's ball of string.
There is no better tool than Scripture for penetrating soul and spirit, joints and marrow, thoughts and intents. I have the privilege of sacrificing more. Few professional therapists remain on call twenty-four hours a day. Maybe I don't either, for over the years I have learned to build some safeguards into my schedule and some hedges around my family. I have the opportunity to hurt more, to care more, to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn.