Sniffing Out Guilt

This one's about something I find to be a recurring feature of ministry: There are people who seek to sniff out guilt in a minister. If they find it, then they run with it (and sometimes they run with it even where they don't find it). They deal in guilt. They disseminate guilt. Here's a small example. Someone said to me: "Someone told me that they saw Reverend entering a bottle store [liquor store]." They gazed into my face. I said: "It's quite possible." The 'sniffer' looked surprised, then said: "Oh! Of course, Reverend! You-you may have needed some communion wine! You may have-have needed a little sherry for a trifle! You may have been buying a-a cool-drink!" OBSERVATION: One would be able to find many imperfections in ministers of course, and one does one's best, admitting failure where due, as should all Christians. One way to deal with sniffers, I think, is to have a healthy sense that God graciously uses flawed people -- apart from one standing before God without guilt. And to have a good sense of "the order of things" -- which is, what deserves feelings of guilt and what not. On occasion, I have given sniffers short shrift. (Examples tend to be more subtle than this one -- extremely subtle sometimes).