The Dangers of Self-Diagnosis

I was listening to someone tell a story the other day about an elderly woman who was scheduled for an examination at a hospital.  This woman, in her 90's, was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was defiant.  She refused to submit to the exam that was crucial for her health and well-being.  To make her point, she managed to produce some rather colorful language.  The well-meaning medical staff had her best interests in mind, but because she felt she knew best, she refused to cooperate.

As I was listening to this tale, like a lightning bolt, I thought about ministry in the local church.  After all, doesn't every event in life have some parallel to ministry, serving as fodder for a future sermon illustration?

Anyway, it was so powerful I shared it immediately to those listening and they immediately saw how true it was.  In the context of ministry, as those of us in leadership attempt to provide ways for people to grow and achieve greater spiritual health, certain people are determined to exhibit the belligerence of this dear woman.  Her mind, being ravaged by a disease which disabled sound reason, rendered her a victim to her own misguided thoughts.  In the same vein, people of perfectly sound mind (?) are being asked to voluntarily take this step or that in order to progress in their walk with Jesus Christ, but they are adamant.  No way!  Their self-diagnosis keeps them spiritually infantile and stunted.  What they perceive as self-preservation is actually self-imposed soul decay.

Now, granted, not every idea that ministry leaders propose is God's clear will or even best for people or the church, but I have seen many reasonable suggestions to disciples rejected, when to have submitted would have at least opened the door of opportunity to greater Christ-likeness.  Instead, because it is change, or because it is uncomfortable, or because it is not the way they prefer to do it, it is dismissed.  In the wake of this defiance, leaders become exasperated, followers grow more alienated, and the church is weakened.

I, too, am often resistant to physical examinations.  My favorite line following a refusal to see an MD for a current ailment is, "Let's wait until the autopsy."  It's a guy thing.  When I say that, most guys laugh with approval.  Most women shake their head in disgust.

Disciples of Jesus and churches of Jesus can ill-afford such complacency.  IF God has placed the leaders in your local church for the purpose of leading, and IF the leaders are prayerfully determining the direction of the local church, and IF you have, as a member, pledged to honor your local church leaders, your rebellion is a coup against the Kingdom at some level.  You have become a renegade sheep.  And sheep are notorious for following other sheep, whether wayward or homeward.