Brother Bert, a means of Grace . . .

I have been struggling with something for awhile.  I feel passionately about many things, things that I think are of grave importance.  

Things that other folks have passionate feelings about that are diametrically opposed to mine.

I want them to see the light.  I want them to learn the truth.

I want them to see how right I am. And admit it.

That's the way I feel much of the time.   But my better angels tell me that it is not good.  For anything.  Except creating chasms so wide between people that what is said from one to another can no longer be heard, unless conversations escalate to shouting matches. It is hard to hear anything when everyone is shouting..

So, I've been wondering for awhile, how does one express ideas and opinion and expect them to be heard and considered by those who disagree? 

I don't know.

I'm thinking about it tonight because a friend of mine died last night.  Bert Goodwin seemed to know the answer to my question.  

Brother Bert was a United Methodist pastor in the North Alabama Conference, ordained as an elder in 1960. A couple of years later he and Ella and Mike moved into the parsonage to serve us at Lester Memorial, where he was my pastor when I was a kid. I learned  about Christian fellowship around the table in the parsonage after the Sunday night service as our families gathered as friends to talk and eat and laugh . . .mostly laugh. As a kid, I always felt welcome at the adults table at the parsonage.   A few years later Bert was the director of Camp Sumatanga, which has been a second home to me for much of my life, a place of "rest and vision."  There was not much rest for Bert and Ella during those years as they nurtured and expanded the vision of that Holy place, as well as its sewage and water systems, roads, paths, and buildings. But it has been that place for thousands of others of all ages because of the investment of years of life the Goodwins made there.   He was instrumental in bringing the Walk to Emmaus to Alabama, at Sumatanga, and sustaining it.  He liked to say with that dry smile,trademark shoulder shrug and a voice he assumed when he was being sarcastic, that after the first Walk he thought the Walk to Emmaus would be a pretty good thing, that a few people would attend, and that would be that. That was about thirty years ago. Alabama Walk to Emmaus #413 will be going on at Camp Sumatanga this week-end.. I figure around 18,000 pilgrims have Walked to Emmaus from North Alabama, changing lives and energizing local churches.  

Bert and Ella served other churches.  He was a district superintendent in the North Alabama Conference.. There are a lot of other big and good things that Bert Goodwin had a hand in.  I just listed a few that directly affected my life. (Feel free to list additional things with a comment if you wish).  An exhaustive list would be just that . . .exhausting. And Bert would not like that.  

As amazing as Bert's life resume is, it still doesn't answer my question. But while his life resume may not answer it,  his life did. 

Bert had a way. No matter who you were, he would make time for you, even in the past few years when he should have been taking it easier.  But he did not always tell you what you wanted to hear.  He tried to tell you the truth.  Sometimes it was a hard truth.  Sometimes he spoke the truth to individuals.  Sometimes he told it to congregations. He was not afraid to speak it to power.  Because he knew there was no greater power than the truth.

Sure, he ruffled a few feathers along the way. The truth can do that.

But the amazing thing is, most of the time, it didn't work that way.  He spoke the hard truths.  But you loved him anyway.

Because he knew that something else was important.  He spoke of it often. I think it is my answer.

Grace.

Truth spoken with grace.  When you left Bert, even if the truth skinned you up pretty good,  you knew you were loved.

And I pray, as he left us, he knew the same thing.

..