It is good to share problems – but only for the person actually complaining.
This is one of the great truths of life and was first expressed by the Baptist theologian Gerhardt Eigener in his monologue “Warum Gibt Es Keine Lösung?”
[Why is there no solution?] published in 1762 in Erfurt, Germany.
Eigener had, for a long time, served as pastor to a flock, and had been troubled by the number of time each week that someone would call round and start discussing their problems with him. It seemed to him that each time he would start a meal, visit the privy, start shaving, or had poured himself a beer that some person would arrive burdened with a worry –" I can’t find my house keys"; "I have earache"; "My daughter is worrying me", "My wife just died", "The Prince’s soldiers want to kill me", etc.
The feeling came upon him that he was being slowly stoned to death by popcorn in retribution for some sin his parents had committed.
He noted from letters he received that other pastors were involved in deep theological questions that affected affairs of state that really did need the application of his great intellect, such as “How many nails were used to crucify Christ”; “Is it a heresy or merely delusional to believe that animals have souls?” or “Where did the People of the Land of Nod come from?” and yet here he was with a brain the size of the universe and was being required to advise on an objectionable relative who, apparently, had always been an asshole, and was now being an asshole.
He considered the Protestant view that the Catholic Church had, by requiring the population to confess through a priest, created a job that specifically paid a specific person to listen and then, rather than offer a solution – to require several “Hail Marys”, the purchase of a relic, and/or a generous donation or whatever was deemed efficient but ungodly.
Luther had, over 200 years earlier, proved that people could speak directly to God. God was the Supreme Being Who had the answer to every problem
- mainly because it could only be God who had created the problem in the first place - yet, to many, when they spoke to God, His Answers seemed unclear, unpalatable, and/or unsatisfactory.
To Eigener, this went against theology because God’s Answers were, by definition perfect – it was as if people wanted imperfect answers from another human rather than God’s Answers! This was a state of affairs that Eigener, as a Pastor with a duty to ensure that all his flock went to Heaven, could not allow to exist.
Eigener’s reasoning seems faultless:
(1) The result of taking advice from humans was an imperfect solution that, by being adopted, created an imperfect Baptist world.
(2) If the world were imperfect, then the Jews, who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing, would not join with it.
(3) If the Jews were never to be perfected, then the only outcome would be that Jesus would never return.
He thus adopted the view, as expressed in the Bible, that
(4) Reality is Truth and
(5) that thus Truth is whatever, in reality, happens.
(6) Therefore, Truth is good because whatever happens can only happen by God's Will, which itself must be good.
(7) It follows, as night follows day, that whatever does happen must be the Truth and therefore what happens must, of necessity, be "of God" and thus must be good regardless of the effect on Heinlein (see below), or anyone else, at the time.
Eigener, in obedience to these irrefutable propositions, therefore took a very frank and pragmatic approach to the personal problems of his flock and later, in his writings, the world in general.
We are fortunate to have a report of an episode in which Eigener was consulted by a member of the flock at his home in the March of 1758, and I offer that report in translation:
Gerhardt Eigener: “Speak your problem for the Lord Hears you.”
Wilhelm Heinlein: “Well… As you know, I am a cobbler and my eyesight is fading. My wife has a suppurating growth on her leg, and my son is a drunk. I recently received an order for 100 pairs of boots for Prince Eugene’s personal guard and an advance of 100 Crowns to make them. However, my son stole most of the money and spent it on drink and women. The Prince is asking for the boots; the leather supplier is asking for payment, my wife requires a doctor and my son is still drunk.”
Gerhardt Eigener: “Yes, but what is your problem?”
Wilhelm Heinlein: “… Well… I’ve got no money, I have not eaten for days, my wife will die, my business will fail, my son is still a problem and I stand a fair chance of being executed.”
Gerhardt Eigener: “Yes, but what is your problem?”
Wilhelm Heinlein: “Mainly, that I won’t have a wife, business or, literally, a life.”
Gerhardt Eigener: “Yes, but what is your problem?”
Wilhelm Heinlein: “Oh for God’s sake! Don’t you see? Unless I do something like selling my son into slavery, I’m dead and so’s my wife!”
Gerhardt Eigener: “You therefore have no problem for you have a solution – God has spoken through you. Close the door on the way out and send the next parishioner in to me.”
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In the very early 20th century, there was a sudden resurgence in interest in Eigener. Debate was furious.
There were those who proposed that Eigener was in fact unconsciously advocating atheism in that God could be removed from the equation without altering the outcome.
This was countered with the argument that, in Heinlein’s case above, it was, indisputably, God who had placed the idea of selling his son into slavery into Heinlein’s mind (as per Joseph in the OT) and Eigener was God’s humble tool – His Prophet.
Another group, in its turn, countered this with the claim that Eigener was no more than a sounding board for God – a neutral catalyst – and Eigener did absolutely nothing – something that anyone could do - but Eigener got paid for it.
Then there were those who could not bear the idea of Eigener not actively advising and called him “The Unspeaking Prophet.” Between 1904 and 1908, there were several
“Prophets Must Prophesy” marches in the area, some of which are reported to have had over 10,000 participants. Their claim was that Eigener had not said what God had said when God had spoken to Heinlein – he merely allowed Heinlein to realise what it was that God had said, and this created paradoxical and uncomfortable parallels with the confessional priests of the Catholic Church who, by imposing a penance, gave the penitent time to consider and regret and thus obey.
Another group, who came to be known as “the Aaronites” followed Joseph Aaron, a reformed horses-thief, gambler, and womanizer, in a belief that Eigener was, in fact “Christ returned” but that Eigener was a Christ who now had all but given up on the stupidity of mankind and was causing the world to divide into those who Trusted in God (mainly themselves – the Aaronites) and “The Rest” who “just got on with it” and were damned. It was perhaps unfortunate that this group died out in 1912 when, unaccountably, at a service at their church in Magdeburg, a raging fire broke out and all the doors had been locked as a message from God.
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Today, the Independent Baptist Movement – The True Church of God on Earth – takes a broader view and largely agrees with Eigener, whose message can be encapsulated in “God Helps Them that Helps Themselves.”
God is basically telling us that a trouble shared is a trouble doubled.
If you’ve got problems, then they are your problems and you know, through Him, what you should be doing.
The fact that you don’t want to do what you know must be done is neither here nor there – He has spoken and no matter what you think about it, that is what you should be doing.
If you want God to make a substantial deposit in your bank account, you are in the wrong religion and probably the wrong country – you want something like Socialism in which rich people are forced to pay poor people simply because they are poor and they don’t like being poor – even though Jesus said they are blessed.
In short, don't bother your Pastor with trivia; don't just talk about it, listen to God in your mind and do what He's suggesting.
If the result of your problem is inevitable, you are blessed because He has decided that you are to take an active part in His plan.
However, if you want to discuss a business proposition, especially one concerning the TV, radio or media, or a new idea for fundraising or a way of working for the Church as a volunteer or something else that will serve God, the Pastor's door is always open.
YIC, etc.