Out of the blue

The Psalmist writes of crying to God ‘out of the depths’. I’m sure many of us have been there at times during lockdown.

The job I do at present for the Pastors’ Academy in providing support for church leaders tends to lead me into some pretty depressing situations. I don’t get a balanced view of churches. I’m like a doctor. It’s generally those who are ill and unhealthy who turn up at the surgery.

Recently I found myself once again feeling very low. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be church leaders acting like hard-nosed CEOs rather than loving shepherds, and church members going out of their way to be difficult. There were pastors who had taken a well-earned month off during lockdown, returning to find three or four families had resigned from the church. There were other churches taking in new members to the detriment and discouragement of other churches. There were pastoral issues of adultery, divorce and malicious talk. On top of all this, of course, is the ongoing, overarching discouragement of various abuse scandals in the churches and the unfair witch-hunts that can often follow. The whole horizon looked dark blue. I needed some encouragement. And the Lord knew.