Multiple personality

I had an interesting day yesterday playing the part of an interviewee being assessed as a potential candidate for full time ministry in the Church of Scotland - (for the purposes of assessor training). Both interview teams asked very different questions and I left feeling that I had portrayed two quite different people!
That struck me as quite congruent in ministry when we are called to be so many different things to different people at different times and in a wide variety of situations. These are often brief encounters and might leave folk with little snapshots, pieces of a very complex jigsaw.
Few will ever see the bigger picture or even a sizeable part of it but all will be affected, for good or ill, by the sense they make of what they do see. Striving to reflect the image of God in every encounter becomes much more vital when seen from that perspective. It is less important that folk get to know us than that they get to see God in us.
I'm not sure that either account I gave of myself yesterday merited acceptance as a candidate for training. But that's another story!
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