Thread by @rachelswilhelm

2023 Lessons 🧵: Leaders will fail you. I learned this before, but now I feel like the nail is in the coffin on it. I am a leader in the church world, and it makes me want to defy what I have seen---a sort of hypocrisy, gross mishandling of circumstances, a real lack of care (1)

and compassion on sheep. I was naive about that. Now I'm not. Some of you will think, "Oh brother" with an eye roll. But scripture is true when it says, "The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him." Prov. 18:17 (2)
which leads to:

True friends are not just friends with the position or office you hold, they are friends with YOU. Because even if you are a good singer, up front, seem cool, etc, they want to be friends with the soul of you, not just the image you seem to have. (3)

Because once that position is vacated, you know who your real friends are. No matter how much time you've spent with them. --Listen up! (4)

People are hurting all over the place. I knew it before, but it comes in new ways---it hits me harder every year. (5)

"in much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief." (Ecc. 1:18) The truth of this is almost staggering the longer I live. (6)

For most people, loyalty is king, not truth. This is why sexual abuse in the church is perpetuated. Not because an abuser is good at keeping it hidden, but mostly because the bystanders that see it decide being loyal is more important because (7)

they could lose so much if they said anything. And I'm not talking about the abused here. I'm talking about the bystanders. So the abused get abused by the bystanders AND the abusers. (8)

The "high road" in response to a scandal is a lie. The high road you have bought is only a way to perpetuate abuse. If you don't expose it, it keeps going. We as Christians are agents of truth and light and the "high road" is an opportunity to be an agent of lies and darkness. 9

We’ve all said the “high road” is full of virtue, but it’s not. It’s not virtuous to cover up for people who are abusing others. (10)

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd of ME. In a way, corrupt leaders will be corrupt and they eventually will be brought down and corrected, but Jesus stands towering in the midst of it all. (11)

The friends that are friends with you believe you. Even if a man in a collar says otherwise. Because men in collars are just men too, not Jesus. (12)

There are incredible people all over the place. Just yesterday, a woman stopped me at a store and asked to pray for me because God prompted her to. What God had her say to me was exactly what I needed to hear. What I needed prayed over me. (13)

Sorrow brings you to Jesus, the Man of Sorrows. (13)

Truth comes to light. It doesn't matter how loyal you are to a lie, eventually, it could be a year, ten years, 30 years, truth comes to light. (Be sure to say you are sorry later for not believing your abused friend at least once it does come out.) (14)

A holistic worship life is the way forward if you don't want to be jaded. It can't be done perfectly, of course, but God is in it. If minute by minute we thought "How am I living out my life in God's story well?" (15)

We would be more content, love others more, stop competing with others because God is using them how he will, you will love what God is doing in YOU more. (16)

You are never done creating. There is always a new creativity lying dormant in you that God is ready to reveal to use for your spiritual formation. Figure it out. Ask God where it is. It doesn't have to be ground breaking. It could just be ordinary, like baking bread. (16)

The Body of Christ is vast and most of us don't know it outside the color of our own skin. God celebrates each expression of worship towards him from every culture. Being uncomfortable is good. God is comfortable with it. He delights in it. (17)

I'm always learning to shut up, speak up, listen, and enjoy people. Our God is a multi-cultural God. It's cool. And I think Thai food will be the dominant food at the Great Feast of the Lamb in heaven. 😂 18 lessons. Now I’m an adult! Happy New Year ahead of time!