The Glass Ceiling

October 12, 2007, 9:30 am; posted by David
Filed under Articles, David, Featured | 1 Comment

I was sitting alone at a ministers’ luncheon some decades ago, watching my brothers interact with each other, when an important personal word came for me from the Lord. We had recently endured a meeting where one brother had spent 40 minutes proclaiming the KJV to be the only God-sanctioned text, and another where a well-respected man repeatedly said, “The Bible has more to say about finances than salvation.” Both things had grieved me, but being the youngest, newest member of this elite group, I didn’t challenge either statement. What grieved me more was that no one else did either.

As I watched them mill around before this next meeting, I could see the obvious deference they afforded one another — the “giving of honor where honor is due,” if you will — and I became conscious for the first time of the glass ceiling that inevitably comes with unity. God spoke to me at that moment: “Remain fiercely independent.”

I knew what he meant. They weren’t bad. They weren’t in grievous error. They just respected one another too much to challenge each other, and visibly hovering over the sanctuary, I saw this glass ceiling, beyond which they would not allow each other to grow.

I had just read a newspaper article commending the benefit of an independent nuclear France, and I have to admit it had become part of my thinking. The US and USSR were in a standoff for control of the world, and all the treaties we were signing, to the chagrin of the USSR, did not limit France at all. They were doing their own thing, an intangible the enemy could not control. They could rail all they wanted at the US and NATO, bully us into all manner of lopsided treaties, but they could not control the one other nuclear power who had hacked out an independent path, proclaiming, “Make all the treaties you want with what you believe to be the entire free world — we speak for ourselves!”

I purpose always, and only, to speak for myself in matters of faith. I hope, and pray, that when it’s all over, and I stand before God on judgment day, that I am not found to be a rebel. I just can’t say amen to things I don’t agree with, or don’t comprehend.

At a men’s advance (our church did not believe in retreating) in 1982, a bunch of us had stayed up late joking, and we fell into a speculative conversation where people threw out statements about God that all began with, “I think that God is…” At about 3 am, after several of these, Tom Altman said — in a very wise and solemn manner — “I believe God is oblong, ubiquitous, omnipotent and has no knees.”

Before we could even laugh, before the last syllable had fully died out, a dazed-looking brother across the table said loudly, “Amen, brother!,” as he had to everything else that night. Tom stared at him for a moment, then shook his head and said, “It’s time to go to bed.” And we all did.

I have to admit, I’ve been running from that conversation ever since. God, never, ever, let me say amen to something I don’t believe, or even comprehend, simply because I am among beloved brethren.

The Glass Ceiling

Comments

What's New

Email Us

Archives

Bweinh! Staff

Our Sites

Sites We Like