I made a mistake.

I’ve been telling a story.

My mistake was that I started at the beginning. I should have started by stating my premise and then worked my way backward.

I attempted to chronicle what God had revealed to me and how. Telling the story in the order the events took place was not a good idea.

Terrible idea.

The only people who understood what I was getting at were people who already recognized what I was describing.

A few people who didn’t understand what I was getting at – and wanted to understand what I was getting at – either asked to meet with me or sent me a personal message and we talked through it.

Thank GOD for them. They have been a blessing and an encouragement while providing accountability.

But there have also been a few who didn’t understand. There have been some who summarized 10 blog posts with “she criticized the pastor” and/or “she wants there to be an invitation at the end of every sermon” and tawked amongst themselves, spreading unfounded gossip.

That’s unfortunate. and sad.

I can’t fix that. It would wear me out to even try. Instead, I’m praying the people hearing that summary won’t take someone else’s word for it and will want to see for themselves. I’m praying that those people will seek out my blog for firsthand information and that, as they read the posts, the Holy Spirit will guide them as they form their own individual thoughts about what I’ve written.

There are some people who are reading, taking it all in and are quietly pondering. I love me some thinkers. I’m praying that the Holy Spirit moves in their lives to draw them into an even deeper, more intimate relationship with Christ as they work through what they themselves believe about all that I’ve said.

Some people don’t give a flying flip what Julie Mills thinks.

I expected all of those responses. But some things I didn’t anticipate.

I didn’t anticipate that assumptions would be made about what God had revealed to me before I could get to that part of the story.

I didn’t anticipate that those assumptions would be so far off the mark.

I didn’t anticipate that the preconceived ideas of some of the people reading would so completely envelope and suffocate my true message.

I didn’t anticipate that people would disagree so strongly with me without understanding what they were disagreeing with.

I didn’t anticipate that I would get so sidetracked by the task of explaining what I was NOT talking about.

I didn’t anticipate that I would get completely derailed by tangents.

So I’ve made a decision. Forget my story. If I get back to it, I get back to it. If not?

meh.

I’m grateful for the lesson learned. If God leads me to tell this story in the future, I will start at the end and work my way backwards.

Me, lamenting to FirstHusband: “It’s like I started out talking about oranges, but before I could even finish describing one, some people assumed I was talking about apples. And not just apples, ROTTEN apples. Now, somehow, I find myself not only talking about apples, but clarifying in painful detail the difference between rotten apples and fresh apples. I have no idea if and when I’m ever going to get back to describing the orange.

(Here’s how to crack that Julie code: Oranges represent abundant life in Christ. Rotten apples represent fire and brimstone turn or burn evangelism and fresh apples represent being open about what Christ has done and is doing in your every day life with the people in your every day life.)

So. For those of you who give a flyin flip, I’ve got another post, or maybe two, about fresh vs. rotten apples coming up and then I’m gonna start peeling an orange.

“If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it—how shortsighted to refuse correction!”
Proverbs 12:1

“A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with.”

Kenneth A. Wells

This is the 11th post of a series. CLICK HERE to view a page listing all the posts in the series.