XX Hugs XX

Someone commented to my friend, 'Is she really your Pastor?' (referring to me) . No big deal I guess, since it's hardly the first time for me to hear these sort of comments. Another has told me, 'Pastor can blog too?' The best one so far is when a fairly new member asked me, 'Cheryl, why do they (as in the other members) keep calling you Ps Cheryl?!! Only earlier today, I confessed to a fellow-pastor of mine that it took me many years before I accepted myself as one. Why? I asked myself. It's natural for us to attach a certain image to certain professions. But I wonder if we sometimes place our leaders on a pedestal and make them out to be super-humans. Many of these expectations are downright unrealistic. While some are not unreasonable on its own but if you were to add them up together, I imagine even Jesus would find the job description a tall order to fulfill. Still we try our best to live up to them, sometimes doing such a good job that I am tempted, myself, to believe I'm superhuman! Which isn't that bad an idea if I had cool suits like The Incredibles (a Pixar-Disney animation movie, for the uninitiated).

It is hard for us to remember that our leaders are made up of flesh and blood; human with real needs, fears and if I be so bold to suggest, weaknesses. To enforce the fact that I'm truly flesh and blood, I'm also a rather tactile person, that is I tend to use my sense of touch to perceive the world around me. Some are visual, auditorial and others are stimulated through their sense of smell (olfactorial). Naturally then physical touch is one of my language of love. Hugs do wonders for me. It's just too bad that hugging is not a common feature in the Malaysian culture. Yesterday I received a card of encouragement from a member. A simple note of appreciation and a small gift. Well, it felt like I was receiving a BIG hug from her through her card!

Both for the sake of others and my own sake, I consciously make every effort to get off the pedestal. Then none can justfy by giving themselves the excuse to say, 'You can do it because you are a pastor but I am not (therefore I should be exempted)'.