{"id":2276,"date":"2020-07-05T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-05T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=2276"},"modified":"2020-07-03T12:39:43","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T18:39:43","slug":"listen-lead-in-doing-the-right-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=2276","title":{"rendered":"Listen…lead…in doing the right thing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wrote earlier<\/a> in connection with the racial challenges we’re facing now about my friend and former pastor John Ed Mathison of Montgomery, AL. At the time, he hadn’t finished his four-part series (with six main (alliterative, of course) points. It’s worth revisiting. Here’s John Ed’s summary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To summarize \u2013 I\u2019m\u00a0listening<\/strong>\u00a0to God and people \u2013 I\u2019m\u00a0learning<\/strong>\u00a0what God can do \u2013 I\u2019m\u00a0leaning<\/strong>\u00a0on God for strength and direction \u2013 I\u2019m striving to\u00a0love<\/strong>\u00a0all people \u2013 I\u2019m looking for ways to\u00a0lift<\/strong>\u00a0people \u2013 I\u2019m standing up to\u00a0lead<\/strong>.\u00a0This is what I can do.\u00a0 What\u2019s your plan of action?<\/em> -John Ed Mathison, July 1, 2020, https:\/\/johnedmathison.org\/blog\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read John Ed’s whole series beginning here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listening is big – being willing to hear from people different from you. This blog, written on June 3<\/a>, contains comments from African-American friends of mine, both in Christian ministry, both walking with God and helping others do the same. One said, “This is everyday life for black men in America.” The other said, “It’s a very very tough journey.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a friend who seems to want to find out about all the sinister forces involved in the demonstrations and riots and thereby negate (I think) the message that some of us white folks need to hear. I told him, “Just because anarchists, ‘Communists,’ etc., are using the discontent as an opportunity to escalate and destabilize, doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t legitimate grievances.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe John Ed has given us a good road map: listen, learn, lean on God, love everyone, lift people up, and lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself.\u201d If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Galatians 5.13 – 16, NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote earlier in connection with the racial challenges we’re facing now about my friend and former pastor John Ed Mathison of Montgomery, AL. At the time, he hadn’t finished his four-part series (with six main (alliterative, of course) points. It’s worth revisiting. Here’s John Ed’s summary: To summarize \u2013 I\u2019m\u00a0listening\u00a0to God and people \u2013 … Continue reading Listen…lead…in doing the right thing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-AI","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2277,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions\/2277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}