Accolades or Condemnation?

(as in, not sure which I should receive here.)

Why is it that some folks are wired to make strings of scathing remarks about third parties in the hopes of eliciting more fuel for what seems to be a gossip bonfire. But because these are good folks who know gossip is bad, they occasionally pause to catch a breath and--like Jack Benny--say, "Well you know..." and then piously go on to use some platitude to justify the last half hour's judgment fest. Something like: "Whenever you do the right thing, you should just expect persecution."

So why is it that 80% of the people who are inclined to make that statement have just made your jaw drop in horror at this "right thing" that they did; and the other 20% who legitimately could make such a statement almost never do, unless it is to help someone else along the course toward forgiveness...and never for self-justification. As for me, I just said, "Hmmmm" with a lot of pitch variation for emphasis. But I wouldn't be surprised if she told her husband as she was hanging up the phone, "They told her not to talk." They didn't have to.

So my thought is that God allowed this poor woman to eat up an hour of my precious time with you, my love, on this busy Sunday before you fly out for yet another week...lost time because that is how desperately she needs prayer. For her family plans to leave the church where they have been serving--a church where they currently make the clergy feel the need to be advised by attorneys--to find a place with a more "godly spirit" about it. They want to find some new place to serve, and they wonder about our church. Forgive me, God, but the first thought that came into my mind was that I should play my church down...oh it is a place for seekers, new Christians, ones who were hurt by the church...a real life-application-of-scripture kind of place. And it's splashy, lots of multi-media and electric guitars...(all things that were cast with a spin that would make them look elsewhere.) Am I horrible or calling a viper a viper, Lord? Well anyway, it's done. I'll still pray for her, God, really I will, but I'm afraid her sense of self-righteousness is so firmly placed that You'll have to do some major and painful work on her to make a crack where Your true light can shine through, getting her to that place where restoration is her plea instead of restitution. May her faith survive the lengthy trial of such a humbling.
"How many definitions do you know for the word serve?" said our pastor last Sunday. Let's see, there's serve the needy like at the inner city community center that we visited today; and there's serve on a building finance committee; and of course, there's serve a warrant...