Summary: People’s personal lives can be messy. In ministry, part of your job is to deal with people’s spiritual emergencies. Spend your ministry life well so you can serve people in their times of great need.
People’s personal lives can be messy. Jesus came for the hurting not the healthy. If you stood in the line to be a doctor, you should not be shocked to be dealing with sick people. If you stand in the line to be a dentist, you should not be surprised that you have to deal with a little bad breath from time to time. Folks, you stood in the ministry line. You should not be shocked that part of our job is to deal with people’s spiritual emergencies.
Can I get really honest with you? This is my one and only life. I want to spend it well. I want to spend my energies on things that really matter. I do not want to spend all of my time and all of my energy on lesser things. Let’s define lesser things: Making copies, setting up chairs, being bogged down in email for hours a day. Listen. All of these things are necessary things. They are just NOT the most important things.
I want to deal with all of the lesser in such a way that I am fully prepared and able to deal with people’s spiritual emergencies. Think of a doctor who has gone to years of expensive schooling. He put himself through all of this pain and financial cost SO HE COULD BE READY to help people. An effective doctor would not want to think that his or her highest use is being stuck in a back office clicking on charts and filling out paperwork.
I am not knocking paperwork or administrative tasks. We have to do these tasks. But these tasks are intended to support the cause NOT be the end of our cause. People are the highest end. Are you prepared for people and their hardships? Remember, this is a major part of what we are supposed to do. I am not called, exclusively, to make copies, reply to emails and fill in spreadsheets. There is a purpose for these items, but they are a means to a deeper end.
This week, let’s keep the main thing, the main thing.