T.D. Jakes on the Juanita Bynum/Thomas Weeks news:

The faith community has to come out of shock and realize that knowing the Bible may make you a strong Christian or a great speaker but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is the only resource we can draw from or work with to help those in our pews who suffer in silence. Many of our parishioners and even our clergy may not have good family skills, coping mechanisms or conflict resolution training. We must realize that none of us are experts and excellent at everything. And encouraging people to change their lives and provide them with good information is vitally important.

I don't normally follow every utterance, preaching, or discourse of Jakes - again, I read 'em more than I watch 'em. But this clip seems to smack of enough common sense to set anyone straight. What Pastor Joel said some time ago rings true as well. Something along the lines of how we're not born again every day and that at some point you have to offer something to people on the practice of living a Christian life.

Ironically, I stumble onto this after waking up in the middle of the night and landing the TV remote on a local preacher: Michael P. Williams. I honestly think that what compelled me to keep it there at first was that Williams looks a bit comical on TV. Here's the picture: big old black man speaking in a basic-looking church on Houston's south side ... the assorted hoots, hollers, & amens breaking up the rat-a-tat-tat of Williams' delivery. Truly, it would qualify as entertaining even if I didn't find myself loving his message as much as I did. But it was on the same tangent as Jakes writes about and Joel often hits on. It's fine and swell to worship in Olde English and stick to as many deep theological truths as you can muster. But - in Williams' case - some folks just needed something a little more simple. It might be a job, it might be a good apartment, it might be ... whatever. Nothing that really qualifies as overtly Biblical in and of itself. But Williams' point was that one's walk of faith can often be aided and improved by those fundamental blessings.

I'll leave the connection back to Bynum & Weeks a bit incomplete here, though. I'm not overly familiar with the couple and that's been one reason why I've neglected to mention it. Obviously, for a couple that reaches and impacts numerous people, your heart has to go out that something healing and teaching comes from it all. And in a series of weeks where we've been treated to stories like Mother Teresa expressing doubts about her faith contrasting with Michael Vick having no doubt after a skirmish involving a pit bull operation and Paula & Randy White getting divorced compared to Bynum & Weeks toughing it out despite domestic violence ... it's been a rather odd month. Not quite as overwhelming as the late 80s/early 90s, but bad enough for now.

God is still good, though. There's a lot of solace to take in that.