A preacher walked through a cemetery one day and saw a man desperate and distraught lying on one of the graves and pounding the sod with his clenched fists. The grave was obviously not a new one. The sod had established itself and the headstone showed signs of weathering.
As the preacher approached, he could hear the man, through his sobs, crying out..,
"Your death ruined my life! Why did you have to go and die, like that. Couldn’t you have just lived a few more years? If you had lived, my life would have been complete and I would have known joy, happiness and total fulfillment, instead of this complete misery!"
The preacher went over to the man and placed his hand on his shoulder, and said..,
"Sir, you have my deepest sympathy and my heart bleeds with yours, as one. However, there will be a brighter tomorrow!"
The man simply buried his face deeper into the grass covered grave and wept even more violently and said..,
"NO! No! No! no… Tomorrow, nor the next day, nor the next will ever be any brighter!!"
The preacher was a little taken back and didn’t really know what to say. So…, he said..,
"Obviously this person was very near and dear to you."
The grieving man replied..,
"No, not really. I never had the privilege of meeting this person myself."
Now, the preacher was in a complete state of confusion and ask..,
"What relationship was the dearly departed to you?"
Raising his head from the sod covered grave, the man replied..,
"He was my wife’s FIRST husband. If only he had lived a few years longer, I would not be in this mess."
The moral of that story is,
this man got what he wanted,
BUT
he did not want what he got.
We all want the "perfect" church, BUT far too often, we do not want to become the "perfect" church. It’s strange, trying to find or have a perfect church becomes a problem because WE are the church.