“Now, therefore, says the LORD, Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
“So rend your heart, and not our garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.”
Joel 2:12-13
As a believer everyone understands the term “damage control.” I was doing an internet search concerning this term and came across a comprehensive definition. “Damage control is just that. It is containing the damage and loss of reputation, revenue, confidence, or loyalty between employees and managers or between consumers and suppliers. Damage control may range from issuing a media release to spending billions of dollars for new packaging (such as occurred in the Tylenol cyanide situation in the early 1980s). It may entail a public apology, comment, or appearance by a celebrity to explain his or her actions to a disillusioned fan base.”—Universal Class.com
I understand this definition from a pastoral perspective, more particularly from a leadership point of view. March 11, 1994 Bethel Baptist Church lost their church sanctuary from ice and snow buildup on the roof. After the insurance agent and inspector came out to look at what took place, they had determined that the roof collapse was due to faulty trusses. But all I knew at the time as a church family is that we needed a place where we could gather for worship, work out a plan for building restoration, and to restore some sense of normality.
As we continued to assess the damage, we realized that the sanctuary was a total loss and along with just about every piece of furniture in it. The best we could do was demolish what was left, start rebuilding from the foundation up. For the next four months we were in crisis management mode and in the end, we saw that God was in it from the very beginning.
HOPING YOU CONNECT THE DOTS
OK, this may sound like a stretch, but I am hoping you see where I am going with this. From a leadership point of view, I truly understand literally, what it means to be in “damage control.” And although I do not look at the Church body as a business, there are some serious similarities between what happened at Bethel Baptist and what happens when businesses are caught in damage control mode. To give you an idea, we lost 40% of our congregation after the second Sunday of our catastrophe. From there, our numbers did not increase for at least a year. I also heard remarks from people living in the surrounding communities, as to our sanctuary’s safety and fitness to minister. But as a ministry team of pastor, deacons, and trustees, we made all the right moves, we persevered, and in the end, we saw what God could do with a church in unity, working in crisis mode.
Although damage control works well in situations where we experience a great trial in our life, it is not true of sin and rebellion against God. I truly believe God doesn’t care one bit about damage control when it comes to our sin and rebellion against Him. He doesn’t care about our loss of reputation, revenue, confidence that people may have in us as a person, or whether we “look good” in the eyes of those outside our church family. The fact is, I believe He loathes the idea of keeping up appearances, in order to look good in church and community.
GOD WAS LOOKING FOR A CRYING HEART
Judah knew all about crisis management and damage control. God commanded his people to pass their history down to their children, both successes and failures, so that they would not forget the God they were to worship and serve (1:3). What would happen to Judah if they didn’t? God would use the invading armies of the countries that surrounded them, as if they were like cutting, swarming, hopping, destroying locust (1:4), in order to discipline them into repentance, i.e., returning to Him.
JUDAH WAS ABOUT FORMALITY
Joel 2:12-13, gives us a glimpse of what God is most concerned about when it comes to having the right relationship with Him. Judah and Israel in general, were very good at keeping up appearances by maintaining an outward showing of repentance without really repenting at all. The LORD tells them to turn to Him with a real change of heart, with real mourning, that would be seen in their fasting and weeping. But what they brought to God was nothing short of an Academy Award winning act. God calls them to “rend” their heart and not their “garments.” God is calling His people to return to Him by giving Him their whole heart.
SO, WHAT ARE THE LIFE LESSONS FOR US?
First, we need to understand that just because we are managing our sin doesn’t mean that God is pleased with us. The fact that God is calling His people back to Him, even while they are “rending” their garments, tells us they are far removed from having that personal relationship with Him. God doesn’t want us to manage our sin, He wants us to confess it, and repent—change directions —move toward holiness and purity, honesty and fidelity. Second, He wants us to have a sense of remorse. I often wonder if we really feel the hurt that God feels when we sin against Him. Do we really feel His disappointment? Do we have a real sense of shame? Fasting, weeping, and mourning all have to do with a crushed spirit and a contrite heart. Remember Peter? When he denied Jesus, the Scriptures tell us that he remembered Jesus’ words and went out and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:75). When was the last time you or I wept over offending our heavenly Father? And third, we need to know that God truly wants us to return to Him—If you are married you will understand this illustration. Which one of you that are married have not had a strong disagreement with your spouse? I would think most of us have been there at one time or another. But to resolve the disagreement, something honest and true has to happen. There has to be a change in direction, change of heart, attitude, and action. You can’t cover a gaping hole caused by a bullet wound with a band-aid and expect the wound to heal. So, it is with our Father God. He wants to demonstrate his grace and mercy, He wants to relent from disciplining us, and He so much wants to show His kindness toward us. In a phrase, He wants to “love on us, bunches!” But our gaping wounds need to be healed the right way. Perhaps today you find yourself managing—doing damage control. It is never too late, this side of Heaven to do it right with God.
This is Pastor Pat FROM BEHIND THE PEN, wishing you Joy In Jesus!