Just a few years ago, an Episcopal priest from Columbus, OH, walked into his office, his church office, on a Monday morning and wrote a hasty letter of resignation. Then he went back to his house, sat down at the kitchen table, and wrote a letter to his wife and three children, all under the age of 10, that he was abandoning them. He went to a logging camp in New England. He took a job in Vermont as a logger.
One Saturday afternoon in January it was about 10 degrees below zero, heavy snow, and the priest was sitting in his portable aluminum trailer that he had rented. The only source of heat was a tiny portable aluminum heater. The heater suddenly quit and died. Within minutes, the temperature in the trailer plunged down to zero.
Shivering and in a fit of rage, the priest picked up the heater, flung it through the window, broke the window, and shouted, "Christ, I hate you. Damn you, God. Get out of my life. I'm finished with this Christian crap. It's all over."
He sank to his knees, defeated and weeping. And in the bright darkness of faith, he heard a voice from within say, "It's okay, Kevin. I understand. I'm here. I am with you and I am for you."
Then he heard Jesus weeping within him. Christ felt what he was feeling. It was an overwhelming feeling of intimacy. That same afternoon Kevin Martin packed his bag, returned to Columbus, Ohio to be reconciled to his family and his church. Since that time he has gone on to pastor the most alive, dynamic, and Spirit-filled Episcopal church in America, St. Luke's in Seattle, Washington. Jesus is fine tuned to our anger and disappointment. He really knows what hurts the human heart.
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