Watch the Gate of Your Soul
by J. Ellsworth Kalas
In some ways I lived a charmed life as a pastor. I made a full share of mistakes, spoke unwisely a painful number of times, and in spite of my best efforts I sometimes failed in pastoral responsibilities. But in all of those 38 years, serving in four very different churches, life was good. I loved my people, and if my people didn’t love me they surely did an Oscarwinning performance in pretending.
As I say, it was perhaps a charmed life. I never ran into the problem I discussed over lunch recently with one of my students. Nevertheless, I’ve heard about this problem often enough to know that it exists in many churches. This student has a member who has “run off” every pastor for almost a generation. She is critical and meanspirited, and sometimes she’s careless about the truth. Many in the church know what is happening, but the family is prominent enough that no one has the courage to challenge the situation.
I didn’t try to give my student a 30 minute lesson in pastoral miracleworking, since I haven’t yet written that lecture. I did, however, urge him to keep the woman in her place. That is, he shouldn’t let her get inside him. It’s tough enough when an enemy attacks you from the outside, but that’s nothing to be compared with the enemy who attacks you from within. Once a person has gotten to us in such a fashion that he or she is constantly appearing on our soul’s radar screen, we’re in big trouble. By that time, you see, they’ve moved into a place where they can control us from within: they appear in conversations where they don’t really belong, they keep us from falling asleep, and they greet us maliciously as we awaken. And all because they’ve taken up residence in our souls.
But remember this: they can only do this with our permission. You and I are the gatekeepers of our souls.
I’m not an authority on demon possession, but now and again I see a pretty fair replica of it in otherwise normal people. If I were more direct I would say, “Why do you pay this person the compliment of your constant attention? Why do you let them crowd out so much of the beauty of life? Why do you allow him or her to own your soul?” Sometimes people allow such persons to hold court in their souls for a decade or more, souring life and crowding out most of what is good, edifying, and uplifting.
When I was a boy I heard a story about Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. She was endorsing a person for a position, when someone asked, “Don’t you remember how hurtfully she spoke about you several years ago?” Miss Barton replied, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.”
I don’t know the nature of Miss Barton’s religious faith, but I’m sure of her good sense. If you have enemies, do your best to love them into friendship. But at the very least, don’t let them possess your soul.
The issue is clearer still for those of us who claim Christ as Lord. After we’ve stepped aside so that Christ is on the throne of our lives, why should we let the spirit of anger, revenge, malice, or illfeeling take His rightful place? We can’t always stop persons from attacking us from the outside, but by God’s grace we can be sure that they don’t move in where they don’t belong. You and I are the doorkeepers of our souls. Let Christ in, and then give admission to no unworthy intruders.