Years later, on the other side of the ruins, I found myself listening to the wishes of a young shepherd, saw him and heard him. You can also identify yourself.
“Whatever happens, I want to give myself completely to the ministry,” he said.
- His passion inspired me.
- But I was worried about the context.
- We had just talked about his difficulty.
- As husband and father.
- Along with a recurring retreat on the path of his soul.
- I took a deep breath and stopped.
- Looking at the bowl of pad thai in front of me.
“If the department is all we’re trying to accomplish, I started by saying, “So how do we define the department?”Sounds important, you know? I took food to my mouth and chewed.
“I just want to preach the word, ” he said. Whatever happens, as long as I keep saying what God says, he will bless me, do I know that God gave me a purpose?
There was urgency in his voice and haste in his eyes; both were like a mirror to me. I wrapped peanuts and pasta around my fork (Chinese chopsticks had already begun to humiliate me). I’ve been looking for words.
“Yes, God blesses His Word,” I began, “Do you have a purpose?” Said
I took the bowl a little bit more, trying to figure out what I should stop saying. “I spoke once at a conference. I’ve preached five times. It was one of those moments when I felt God’s presence in a tangible way. In fact, after this specific conference, I planned the rest of my year, full of preaching across the country. In fact, God has blessed his parole. I see it firsthand.
“But,” I said, and stopped. In my head, I was at a crossroads, wondering how to say what would come next. “On the way back from this last sermon, amidst the divine blessings that night, my wife of fifteen said she was leaving me. “
There was a silence between me and my young friend. I had my soda. I was afraid I’d said too much and too soon. He knew the circumstances of my life. But were you willing to learn a little more about what these circumstances can teach us?Besides, were you willing to try to give him a voice?
“I am trying to suggest that ministry involves more than the question of whether our sermons are powerful and how we influence crowds of people. Giving everything to God means much more than giving yourself to sermons and multitudes.
Later that night, we were under the stars
“When I get home, ” he said, “I will finally begin to be a shepherd. Who knows, I’ll be in the seminary soon and I’ll be equipped, and then I’ll be teaching somewhere. I can” don’t wait to get there. Two years of shepherding and then ??
I found myself looking at the gravel in the driveway like it was a bowl of Pad Thai. Again, I looked for words to say what had not yet been said. I heard my voice in his voice. He was eager to do something great for God, his pastoral work was a platform to help him get to another place where he was not, however, he did not know how to include his son’s diaper change or take his wife’s hand in his definition. greatness.
“And if you’re already where God wants you, ” I tried timidly. “In Jesus, you are already a blessing to the people. What if your place in the ministry was where you are with your family, where God wants you to be?He?
His face showed pain
“Please forgive me if I talk too much, ” I say. Then I took a break. “It is that you are talking to a man who has earned everything he has always dreamed of and who has lost much of what really mattered, all in the name of giving himself totally to the ministry to serve God. “I’m just trying to say that it really seems important to know what we mean by “Department” if we’re going to devote ourselves entirely to it. My wish is that what you give yourself completely is really what God wants, with the definition that God gives him.
He looked up at the sky again. ” I don’t know where to start with all this,” he protested.
Homeless people in our living rooms
The following week, I sat down for lunch with a pastor who goes up and becomes famous, the church he served in existed only four years ago, but it was already frequented by several hundred people, it was emerging in our community as the next big thing.
However, there was something that worried him. ” During the first two years of our explosive growth,” he admits, “I was still misrepresented as husband and father?”He looked at his icy water and made a grimace. ” I hid in my success as a shepherd, ” he continued. “I think I used this to avoid seeing my flaws at home and in my heart. “
This man was the ultimate example of what my youngest friend was trying to be, yet did the two men reveal the same fight? The recognition that someone can receive praise for preaching Jesus, and at the same time knowing little about how to follow Jesus in They are able to communicate love to the crowd from the pulpit or in an office or classroom, but when asked to surrender to themselves (not their gifts), they tend to become clumsy see it in me
My young friend wrote to me in the first week of his new pastorate
I’m full of anguish, especially so I have to do all this time. I wonder if I made X bucks working for church today. I’m not used to so much free time in a day, and that makes me anxious. I can do things better when my schedule is full and I’m going at a good pace. I have lived under pressure for years, and now that God is expanding my space, I want to sabotage it. How can I get out of this, this and get my life back?
My friend did not know how to make a pastoral day if the variables of efficiency, quantity, speed and economic measures were taken away from him, he had not been taught other types of treasures that were his in Jesus, which he might want to use in his time I had not learned either. The time he spent with me over the years didn’t help him.
The desire to do God’s work is something that burns in the heart of every shepherd.
The pastor is able to think of great things for the glory of God, but it seems that the work of ministry insists on attracting the pastor for the small things, the simple things of daily life, for those activities that are not seen or perceived by the people.
In addition, the pastor quickly realizes that he has his limits and that he is insufficient for the work that God presents to him, discovers that he does not know everything, cannot fix everything and cannot be everywhere at the same time. Because, after all, it is the work of God and not of the shepherd.