Should Have Stayed In Bed

That was really the prevailing theme of yesterday. When I got back to work I had the Pastoral Bored Committee to deal with. There we had less than quorum and heard reports like, "I attended that meeting. I didn't listen to what they were talking about." (Not making that up). There were comments from another quarter about how our church is failing to respond to "the heathens" who want to remove God from our society.

Okay.

After the meeting I was leaving the building when a woman rushed up to me and said I had to put a youth ministry flip chart in a room she was having a meeting in on Sunday. I informed her that my youth are meeting in that room at that time. She physically grabbed me and dragged me back into the office to clarify that yes, she had a room other than the one she thought. She was livid. She tried to grab me to drag me outside again but instead missed and grabbed my breast. I was speechless. She adjusted her aim and grabbed my arm and physically dragged me outside to stare at the outside of the building where she had a meltdown when she realized we did have the room she wanted. We meet there virtually every week. After five minutes of crying, raising her voice at me, saying she had paid months ago, saying she needed a kitchen and no one would ever come back, I finally had enough of her physical assaults and emotional turmoil and said tersely, "I'm done. Have the room. I'm done." I turned on my heel and walked away briskly.

I'm feeling bad about my less than pastoral reaction, but at the same time, this woman was out of control. On one hand, I probably did the right thing by not blurting out what nasty things I had on the tip of my tongue, instead, just turning and walking away, but on the other hand, my anger and walking away is not the best pastoral reaction for a parishioner to have to experience. I've never been very good at just being quiet and taking abuse, but perhaps this is something I need to work on. I don't know. I just know I'm still not feeling very good about it this morning.