I have been reading a book called "The Godbearing Life" It is amazing. A quote taken from the book really hit me. I hope that it hits others as well.
"Most of us discover quite painfully -and often quite late- that our overstretched schedules prove not that we are living into God's will for us but that we are living outside of it. We naturally equate busyness with business. The more appointments and tasks we have scheduled, the more "faithful" we feel... Like Moses we try to address the bottomless pit of human need out of our own resources without realizing that we are in bondage, not ministry, at least until we have finally acculated enough frustration and resentment to explode or quit or both."
- Kenda C. Dean
I found that this is the ministry style that I started out doing. This is the lifestyle that I started out doing. Now that I am trying to NOT do this, I am noticing it more and more in people and pastors that I meet, blogs I read.
I think in medical terms it is called a messiah complex. We are called to point to the messiah, not be surrogate messiahs.
Sometimes we encounter busy times of life, there is no way around that. Jesus got pretty busy at times. The question is, if it is a lifestyle, why? Who are we trying to please? Can we accept that God can do this without us? Can we accept that we cannot change hearts no matter how busy or hardworking we get? If you are doing ministry out of a deep need to be needed, problems arise. If you are doing ministry because all these people would be lost without you, problems arise.
Take a look at your calendar and ask, "why" and "at what cost"? Before you schedule another meeting, event, trip, or outing, do a motive check. This is the busiest generation of teenagers, they don't need more stuff to do, they need an encounter with Jesus; and so do we.
1 comment:
Thanks for that message. That is something to think about. I have a busy schedule, mostly due to distance from work and travel time. sometimes I wish that I were working closer to home, but I really enjoy what I do....most of the time. There are always those days/times where working is no fun. But as I approach marriage and a transformation in life I will have some decisions to make. One of the things that "hit" me one day is that I have spent the last 29 years living for myself...and enjoyed it. I still like doing the things I want to do, but am now looking forward to living for others, Brooke, possibly children, family and I want to be back working with the youth. So...thanks for posting this. I'll see where God leads Brooke and I in life, but I am eager to go for the ride. I just need to make it a priority to dedicate more time for other things than work and myself.
Mark
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