K. Rex Butts

I have served as a minister/pastor for about twenty five years now. Doing so has meant preaching on most Sunday’s as well as some other speaking engagements. On more than a few occasions I have said something with the best intentions but that was hurtful to others. My words, though intended for good, did harm.

When I was younger, I wanted to respond in a defensive manner. I wanted to justify myself by saying that people just misunderstood me or maybe they had other unresolved issues that were contributing to their adverse reaction. Maybe that was the case but at the end of the day, something I said caused harm and becoming defensive, trying to justify myself, only caused further harm.

Anyone who speaks publicly has a difficult task because anything they say can cause harm on any given day. It doesn’t matter if their rhetoric was misunderstood or not fully heard in context. The bottom line is that their words caused harm. Our attempts to justify only do further harm. Just because someone’s words were not hurtful to us doesn’t mean they weren’t hurtful.

For those of us who are Christians, who want to see God’s redemption and reconciling work at hand, we first must be honest with the truth. If someone’s words were hurtful to others, we must acknowledge that harm even if such words were not hurtful to us. If we can’t do that, then we’re just part of the problem.