There are many never-ending aspects of ministry.
Sunday comes every week.
There always seems to be another hurting person.
We endlessly seem to work on another ministry task, another parishioner’s need or another Bible study/sermon.
But I personally think that one of the most difficult realities of ministry is that we are daily and weekly praying, studying and ministering out of an awareness of sin and the shortcomings of humanity, especially our own!
We are, of course, praying for God’s help in people’s lives, we are declaring regularly the promises and gospel of Jesus, we are pointing people to the Lord and we are seeking to base our teaching and our ministry on the Word of God.
And yet through it all we are constantly aware of the fact that we ourselves are people who need a Savior. We pastors, as humans, often fall short of the glory of God in terms of our impatience, unkindness, hardness of heart, or other areas of compromise, impurity and sin.
Most other vocations do not so deeply or clearly deal with the shortcomings of not only humanity but also the very person doing the work. Of course counselors and therapists come to mind as having a comparative understanding and yet they don’t necessarily deal with the personal spiritual and eternal consequences of their daily vocational choices.
It’s not like we as ministers can just do our work with personal detachment. We are dealing with the heart of people and therefore with our own heart. Sometimes it might be nice just to go to work and not have to worry about whether or not our work will reveal another personal area of insufficiency, selfishness or immaturity.
But on the positive side of things, we as pastors do have the privilege of coming face to face with our own selves and simultaneously with the answer to our sins and shortcomings (Jesus!).
I understand that you might prefer to be in a vocation that is more 9-5 and that you can just leave it at the door when you clock out for the night. I understand that pastors might prefer to be in a job that doesn’t seem to shine such a bright light on our own personal faults and flaws. But the good news is that we can each personally receive God’s unconditional love and abounding/sufficient grace as part of our daily/weekly time at work. So then when we tell others that God is able to save and deliver them and give them hope, peace, forgiveness, freedom and healing, then we have something to really talk about, because God first did His work in us, before we ever declared it to others.
Of course we have to make sure not to desensitize ourselves to our own guilt and shame or tune out the voice of God, for then we will have less than nothing to say to others in terms of ministry and preaching but we might even lose our own souls!
Pastor, I pray that although you and I have this constant reality of having to let God deal with us first before He ever works through us, may we accept this as a gift of God. What other job in the whole world can say that it puts you in touch with the Creator of the universe, the Savior of mankind and the Good and Gracious Heavenly Father, literally as part of your job?!
Wow, what a privilege! Thank you Lord for your abounding love to me.
Pastor Encouragement 