Posted in bible reading, Bible teaching, daily devotion, devotional, discipleship, Faith Journey, Inspiration, motivation, spiritual journey, tagged Benjamin Browne, disunity, divisions in the church, humility, ladies of church divided, potato peeler, potato peeler war, power of Spirit, result of reconciliation, unity on July 2, 2014|
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Story of the Day for Wednesday July 2, 2014
The Great Potato Peeler War
Be eager to uphold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:3
Benjamin Browne relates the story of a wealthy man who donated a beautiful church building to a congregation in New England.
After the dedication, a group of women wanted to add an automatic potato peeler to the new kitchen equipment. The machine would wash and scrub the potatoes, then move then along a belt where a series of knives peeled the potatoes and dropped them into a kettle. Pretty snazzy.
A group of women, however, objected. They claimed they enjoyed the time to gather in the kitchen and peel potatoes and catch up on the latest gossip.
The two opposing groups of women quickly hardened into partisan groups. The Great Potato Peeler War had begun. Women lined up their husbands on the issue and the quarrel escalated. Soon the entire congregation was divided into the Pro-Potato Peeler Party and the Anti-Potato Peelers.
Benjamin Browne says that the pastor came to him one day for counseling. The pastor was so discouraged that he was resigning from the church. Browne was astounded and commented on the good fortune of the church: “You have a beautiful new building, free of debt, a most worshipful sanctuary, and a marvelous modern kitchen.”
“That kitchen is just the trouble,” he remarked, and then related the church division over the potato peeler.
The pastor said the two parties in the congregation bristled with antagonism toward each other. They had become so focused on their quarrel that they were unreceptive to any spiritual message in worship. The pastor, sadly, left the church because he said the gospel could no longer be heard in such an atmosphere.
You may have never heard of The Great Potato Peeler War, but what is troubling is that you can picture it happening. You can relate because you have known similarly senseless divisions in the church.
What would happen if the leading woman who wanted to buy the potato peeler would stand up before the congregation and rescind the intention to buy the potato peeler because of the hurt it has caused to others she dearly loves? What if she apologized and asked forgiveness?
And what if the leading woman who didn’t want the machine offered to purchase it for the church with her own money? And if she humbly confessed that it was not the potato peeler, but her own stubbornness, that was causing so much trouble in the church.
Do you know what would happen? I don’t. But I do know the power of the Spirit. And I do know the result would be beautiful.
(copyright 2012 by climbinghigher.org and by Marty Kaarre)
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