Psalm 18 was part of my Bible reading this morning. It’s one of my very favorite psalms but I got to verse 43 & the 1st part of it sent me into considerable thought.
“You have freed me from the feuds among the people…”
There’s so much I miss about my old life. So much still brings me to tears. So much still so dear and precious to me. Oh mercy, the women I have loved and gotten to serve. But I didn’t realize how utterly exhausting and erosive to the soul the constant feuding in the SBC was till I started recovering from it.
Now what you must understand before you characterize all southern Baptist churches by this is that many exist outside the feuding because they either ignore or are uninvolved in convention matters. I have dear friends who still to this day do not understand why I left because they & their SBC churches don’t get into convention politics. I get it.
Goodness knows I didn’t mean to get into them. But we are held accountable for knowledge and I was in so deep that I knew too much. I’d like to thank social media for that.
I’m pretty much outside that circle these days. Even when I see convention people draw my name into the controversies, I shake my head and whisper, I’m not your girl.
I just want to say this morning that being part of constant feuding will cost your soul a fortune that you may not realize you paid until your early grave. I’m not talking now about any denomination or any particular organization. I’m talking in general. It can be inside your home or your workplace or extended family. Or inside your own soul. Maybe you have motivated yourself for years with conflict. You need a fight to keep your blood flowing.
It will make you sick, is what I’m trying to say. Constant feuding. It will make you sick not only to be part of it but to try to be the peace keeper in it. I’m not a psychologist. I speak strictly as a fellow person of faith. As a reader of Scripture. We don’t always have to leave an environment to step out of its constant feuding. We can just determine that we’re not going to be part of the poison anymore.
Just saying if this speaks to you this morning, I offer Psalm 18:43 as wording for a plea to the Lord.
Free me, my Lord and my God, from the feuds among the people.
FREE ME before it kills me.
The peace of the Lord be with you, my friend. And, boy, do I mean that literally this morning.
I’ve so loved saying the Nicene Creed every week in our worship services. I can’t imagine how it could be anything but valuable, particularly in training us how to articulate what we believe. I also think it’s a good thing to remember that we share this glorious faith in Christ with others outside our church or denominational walls. Every time we say it, I still want to look around the sanctuary and nod like, Isn’t this the most beautiful thing?