Why Nobody Gets Away With Nothing
Once upon a time, I had a grandmother.
A Southern Baptist grandmother.
Actually, she was what they called a “Southern-by-God-Baptist” (say it out loud to catch the emphasis).
During the summers, I would go stay with her, and besides her pound cake, this is what I remember most about her:
She would say, over and over again:
Nobody gets away with nothing.
And it’s true, especially in the church world. Over the last 20 years, Carrie and I have learned, truly and deeply, what it meant to know that God sees everything.
I once worked for a pastor I thought was untouchable.
To me, he was the most powerful and most “anointed” person I had ever seen, and the thought that he could or would ever be removed from his secure position was beyond belief- but I was wrong.
We learned that God sees, God knows, and that God will bring every person to account- especially his leaders. God loves his leaders, but he also loves his people, and the justice side of God’s love, though many times apparently slow in forthcoming, will not be delayed forever. After all, it’s His church.
Every time money is used inappropriately, God sees.
Every time someone is treated poorly and made to feel it is their fault alone, God sees.
Every time someone is publicly dishonored or manipulated to keep prying eyes away from asking too many questions, God sees.
And God is able to bring any leader to justice, any church system to justice, and do it in a way that brings Himself glory.
So what can you do if you’re in the middle of a situation where it seems like people are “getting away with it?”
Well, I don’t know everything to do, but I do know what my wife and I did do:
We prayed.
So many nights, I would grab my wife’s hand, and we would begin to pray for our pastor and church. We would pray for God’s blessing on his ministry, on his marriage, on his children, on his finances. We prayed for God to use him and to speak through him, and to keep him from harm as he traveled. We prayed for our church to be made right and to honor God.
Over and over we prayed. We prayed hard-to-get-the-words-out kind of prayers. The kind of prayers that are only prayed because they have to be, because otherwise the bitterness would creep in and the hurt would overwhelm the hope.
I don’t know if you have had to pray prayers like that for years of your life, but it changes you. You learn how to let go, and stop being the judge. You learn that it is better to give grace than receive whatever else it is you think you want from someone. You realize that God, in his infinite wisdom, has given you to the key to freedom- forgiveness through prayer.
And you realize, that if we see something, God has long seen it, and He will put things to rights.
In other words, you will realize, nobody gets away with nothing.
And if you’re in a tough spot today, in your family, on the job, and especially in the church, if you will cling to my grandmother’s hard-earned wisdom (which is really just a colloquial affirmation of the sovereignty of God), what happened to us, just might happen to you:
We were changed in a way that no one saw coming but that we desperately needed.
You see, without knowing it, we had become permanently disillusioned with life, and specifically with the church.
What does that mean?
Well, in true TV-serial-drama-fashion, you’ll find out, next week. 
