When I was pastoring in Dundee, Florida, the Episcopal
priest in nearby Haines City told this story at an area pastors’ meeting:
One Monday morning when a certain pastor entered his pastor’s
study at the church he found a note which someone had slipped under the door. There was only one word on the little folded
piece of paper. The word printed there
was “IDIOT.”
The pastor fretted all week over the note and worried about what
he had said or done to offend someone. It
distracted and discouraged him from his ministry that week, and he wondered why
the note-writer would not talk to him personally but rather stoop to writing a one-word distasteful and anonymous note.
He prayed wondering if
he should say anything about it the next Sunday. When the next Sunday came and the pastor
arose to bring his weekly message, this is what he said:
“Through the years of my ministry I have often received
notes from people. Usually they contain
helpful and/or encouraging information that I need, but occasionally there are
notes written and people have forgotten to sign them, so I do not know who
wrote them to me. However, last Sunday
someone slipped a note under my study door and simple signed it without writing
a message.”
Enough said.
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