When we started the thread about the call to pastoral ministry, we emphasized the difficulty of this ministry. I believe that is where we will need to stay most of the time, but I am reminded of a story a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School shared with a class I was taking. (for some reason I cant remember his name, but I will never forget his story) This prof was a runner. He explained the experience of marathon running. He described how the runner hits the wall at a point deep into the run. The physical pain and exhaustion is almost unbearable. The pain in your side, the weight of your legs, the gasping for air, etc… Then he explained the second wind. When a runner is able to push through that wall, he will often experience a new level of energy and stamina to continue running. But his story does not get that far this time. He recounts when running the marathon once, when he hit the wall, he just collapsed. He was so tired and felt such pain, gasping for air as he knelt on the road. Then he looked up and there was one of Chicagos finest. A policeman. He expected some word of comfort or encouragement, but instead the only thing the cop said was, Nobody made you do it. He then made his point: Ministry is hard, but nobody made you do it. While ministers need to be encouraged and supported, internally we have to keep that point in the forefront, nobody forced us at gunpoint to go into released ministry. We may blame that on God, harkening back to our burning bush, but he does give us free will. I want to work as hard as I can, with whatever time I have left, to bless those in pastoral ministry, youth pastor ministry, and all the other types of called out service, but we all have to guard against the self-pity pit. If we only sing the tune Oh how hard it is for me in the pastorate we may end up like the one hit wonders of the 80s rock music bands. One great hit, but that was it. Its the only song we become known for, and it eventually gets old….even to us.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:23:12 +0000
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