This post from July 17, 2017 will help you develop a grateful heart.

The post This Is What God Has Given You appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

If you didn’t have a specific moment that you were called, don’t worry. Many people, including 100-year-old John Richardson whom we heard from earlier in this series, had no specific call but just followed opportunity to serve as it arose. If that’s you, you can still relive your experience and appreciate the wonder of how God works through people to reach you. Your call experience is valid however you experienced it.

This post from June 28, 2021 will guide you through the process of rekindling the fire of passion for your call.

The post Come Back to Your Call appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

There are a number of reasons why people lose their call and not all of them are outright sins. Often, it is a case of leaders becoming unattractive leaders who no longer reflect Jesus’ character or leaders who neglect the spiritual practices and humility that drove their success earlier on. If they won’t change, sooner or later the board and staff will see the inconsistency and conclude that the health of the church demands better leadership.

It’s always good to take a close look at yourself and your suitability to continue your call. This post from November 28, 2016 will help you preserve your call.

The post Treasure Your Call appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

There are times in the life of any ministry when the work is just plain hard. Sometimes much harder than anyone ever thought it would be. Ministry can be difficult and wearying. And yet, as the ministry leader it is up to you to rally the troops and lead them forward. What to do? How do you keep your own spirits up so you can inspire everyone else? A previous post has ideas for staying inspired when you have a long uphill road ahead of you to fulfill your mission. Those ideas are good in any scenario. This post, however, has ideas specifically for when the work is very hard and you are getting discouraged.

In Hard Times, Rely on Established Practices

This first strategy for dealing with hard times is to go back to basics. Hopefully, you have already established regular routines and practices that keep you grounded in your faith, vibrant in your relationship with the Lord, and well connected to other people. When you are thrown into a crisis or a prolonged time of tough slogging, these routines and practices are there to support you.

Too often, we try to be the hero and forge through difficult times relying on our own strength. But it is through working with other people that our combined skills, gifts, experiences, and education provide the breakthroughs. You are not designed to do ministry (or life) on your own. This is why God gives people different gifts and roles.

One of the striking things about how Dietrich Bonhoeffer coped with being thrown into a Nazi jail was how his regular observance of the Church year continued in his small cell, giving him a sense of connection with his family and friends on the outside who also observed the Church year. While he was indeed alone in his cell, he knew he was not suffering alone. Even when they could not physically be with him, it comforted and strengthened him to know they were engaged in the same Christian practices at the same time as he was. If just the idea of solidarity had such a powerful effect on Bonhoeffer, how much more of a powerful effect should we experience when people are physically with us and able to help us?

The Practices

Make four practices part of your regular routine so they are available when you especially need them in hard times. If these four aren’t yet part of your routine and you are already in the midst of a very hard time, it’s not too late to turn to them.

1. Pray and discern how God is leading you.
   1. Psalms 13 (when you feel forgotten by God), 69 (when you are in great distress), and 34 (encouragement for when you hope for rescue) are great examples of David’s prayers in hard times. You can pray emotional prayers just like David did. Be real when speaking with God. He’s big enough to hear the raw you and he wants you to be honest in your prayers.
   2. Read my post A Leader’s Intimacy with God for some ideas on building your relationship with God. The most important point of that post in the context of hard times is to remember that the ministry you lead is Christ’s ministry, not yours. Let Jesus carry the ultimate responsibility for your ministry.
   3. I have some posts to help you with discerning God’s voice, a skill that is absolutely essential to successful ministry leadership.
2. Ask for help. Often leaders mistakenly think it’s lonely at the top and they have to bear their troubles and trials on their own. That is absolutely not true! It is only lonely at the top only if you want it to be lonely at the top. There are people who want to help you, but they may not know you want help. They may be too intimidated to offer help. There is no shame in asking for help: it is the wise thing to do and wise people will respect you for asking. Asking for help acknowledges that you are only human. And it shows people you respect them and believe they have what you need. Asking for help lets other parts of the body of Christ contribute what they can to overcome the obstacle. Don’t let pride prevent you from asking for help.
   
   Years ago, I pushed my infant daughter in her stroller on a long and steep walk up out of a deep ravine. Near the end, I suddenly felt I was being pushed ahead and the load became easier. You can see why in the above picture. When my family got behind me to push me up the last part of the hill, what was hard became a lot easier.
3. Connect authentically with peers and others. When you meet, put aside the usual success-focused chatter and get real. People are generally afraid to be the first one to get real, so be the one to take the risk. It’s highly likely that the response will be encouragement and support. I take this risk when I meet ministry leaders and almost every time the conversation suddenly turns to something far deeper than where the conversation started as they open up in response.
4. Remember God’s support. God promises to give wisdom when we ask for it and we know he also equips us for our tasks. But God can also work in people and circumstances around us in ways that only he can do. Ask God to support you. Even though he supports you anyway (he did call you, after all), explicitly asking makes you more aware that God is with you.

Overcome Feelings of Inadequacy

Wondering if you are the right person to lead when faced with a severe challenge is normal. Didn’t we all feel a sudden pang of inadequacy when the COVID-19 pandemic was first declared and we learned how disruptive it would be? I know I did. But thankfully, the Lord God likes to work through people who feel inadequate. God used Moses, Gideon, Esther, and others who felt they didn’t have what it would take to fulfill their missions. After the first pang of inadequacy, I felt God’s comfort and strength as I followed the advice I’m giving in this post.

What should we remember when we feel weak and inadequate? Well, when Paul had a weakness and asked God to take it away, the Lord said to him:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:9a

Awareness of a weakness or perceived inadequacy should simply drive you to turn to God for greater awareness of his grace. Remember that God equips everyone he calls with what they need to fulfill their call. Part of that equipping might be the people God placed around you. They share a call to the same mission, but they have different equipping than you have. This is what God did by providing Moses with Aaron. The group of you can then work together on your shared mission and by doing that, the group helps you fulfill your call.

Fight Imposter Syndrome

There is a thought pattern arising from feelings of inadequacy called Imposter Syndrome. You have it when you doubt your skills, talents, or accomplishments and have a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud.”¹ It can really debilitate you. If you suffer from this, challenge it with this thought: you were called by God who knows you inside out; he knows your weaknesses and yet he still called you. You are not an imposter. You are exactly the person God wanted for what you are doing. Success with your call does not depend on perfection or on you alone. It depends on your obedience to God.

There are also things that only God can do through his Spirit. So don’t try to do his work. Do everything you can and pray for God to do the rest.

Deal with Weariness and Despair

Over time we can become weary and even despair when we look at the enormity of the problems we address through our ministries. I wrote a post that addresses this exact issue. I reread it as I wrote this paragraph and, at least for me, I find it tremendously encouraging.

Contemporary Circumstances

There are two issues that are really challenging right now related to the pandemic and social conditions.

COVID-19 Pandemic Issues

The pandemic has been especially hard on pastors. They have had to deal not only with all the changes to how their churches worship and conduct their programs, but they have done this while enduring the many opposing opinions held by members of their congregations. Their concern is: how will pastors be able to lead their congregations forward in unity once the pandemic is over?

Before going further, I and every other Christian must say a huge "Thank you!" to the pastors who have guided us and helped us stay steady in our faith and Christian life throughout the pandemic. To every one of you I say, "Thank you! Well done."

If this is an issue you are troubled by, please see my post Making Peace in Your Church. Now is the time to provide leadership like never before to help your congregation navigate through and out of the pandemic. Show them how it is done in God’s kingdom.

Something else to think about is just how far we’ve come since March 2020. Who would have thought churches everywhere would be streaming their services? That virtually everyone would get comfortable with video meetings? This past year, you have likely led with more strength than you ever have because you have guided your congregation through all the tumult and disruption. Congratulations! Celebrate what you and your team did. It’s beginning to look like the end of the pandemic is in sight, at least as I write this in the first days of July 2021.

Social Issues

Another issue is troubling, especially for older leaders who have seen the whole world they once knew turned upside down and the pace of upheaval accelerate rapidly in recent years. Like waters rushing through rapids, postmodern thinking has swept us up and carried us swirling down the river into a strange new world without objective truth, the antithesis to everything Christians believe based on God’s own revelation in Scripture. In these tumultuous times, some leaders wonder if they are the ones to take their ministries into a future that looks so contrary to God’s way for humanity.

If this is your concern, it may be helpful to remember that the Church has twice before had to adapt to a complete change in how the world works. The first time was due to the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the second was the decline of feudalism. Both times, the Church ultimately figured out how to adapt and through bursts of creativity recovered from the losses it had suffered in the transitions.

Remember, the Spirit Will Guide Us

We can be confident about our future because Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit precisely to guide us² so we can handle issues like we face today. Take heart that the Holy Spirit continues to breathe new life into the Church each and every day. The end of the Roman Empire resulted in the birth of religious orders that led to renewal in the Church. Today we have multiple movements within the Christian church creatively testing ways forward. It may take time to assess these new ways of being the Church, but the Spirit will help us discern what to do. Be confident. Be patient. Keep giving God your best.

In the End

Just because God called you to ministry does not mean your ministry will be easy. Ministry can be very hard and there is no denying that. But even in the midst of hard times, God provides the people and the equipping you need. And whatever is not provided is what God has left for himself to do.

Let’s not become discouraged in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not become weary. Galatians 6:9

CCCC’s members can discuss this post in The Green.

Key Thought: Knowing God’s perspective changes everything.

The post When Ministry Becomes Hard: Help Is at Hand appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

What do you do when your passion for your call is dwindling and you are beginning to feel like you should leave ministry?

Ministry leaders all have up and down seasons. Enthusiasm waxes and wanes. Work can energize and drain us. Sometimes, even though we know we were called to ministry, our passion for our call diminishes, and then we wonder if we are still called to ministry. If this happens to you, remember that a loss of passion for your call does not necessarily mean you are done with ministry in your current role or with your current church or agency. And it doesn’t mean God has released you from your call. It just means you need to think about:

• what your call is,
• your expectations about what fulfilling your call will be like,
• how you personally are fulfilling your call, and
• your ministry’s mission.

I have another post about developing a passion for your mission that focuses on developing passion by knowing God’s heart. I recommend you read that post as well because there is nothing like seeing your work the way God sees it to motivate you. And if you have lost all sense of call and are doing your job without any connection to God’s leadership, my post about partnering with God should help you re-establish a dependence on his direction.

However, this post focuses on practical things you can do to rekindle your passion for your call. Leaving ministry is not your only option and the best years of your ministry may still be ahead of you. It might be that all you need to do is make some adjustments to what you think about your call or how you are fulfilling it. So, let’s start.

1. Relive Your Call Experience

To correctly discern if you have been released from your call, go back to the call you received (and any other ways you’ve felt called since then). The goal is to find greater clarity about your call and help you understand it in today’s context. Then you will know better how to pray about your call and to assess your options. Are these options variances to your call, logical extensions of your call, or outside of your call?

God does not use a formula to call people to ministry. He calls people many different ways. Don’t think less of your call if it came about a different way than others experienced theirs. Some had a dramatic word from the Spirit that called them to ministry. Others came to a gradual realization of their call based on circumstances, personal interest, or conversations. I’ve heard several hundred call stories and I’ve never heard the same one twice. Treasure how God worked in your life to call you into ministry.

Write Your Story

If you have already written out the story of your call, read it again now to refresh your mind. Otherwise, think back to when you discerned your call and capture the story by using the following points as a guide. And then update that story with any further times of discernment about your call.

Write down:

• What was happening in your life at the time
• Whether the call found you “out of the blue” or if you were seeking to discover what God wanted you to do
• Your emotions upon receiving the call; for example, excitement. If excitement, what excited you? Be specific. If fear, what were you afraid of and how has it worked out since then?
• Whether the call was a natural fit that made sense to you or if it was a radical departure
• Who helped you discern your call
• The steps you took throughout the discernment process
• The timing of the discernment process, whether quick or slow
• How much you relied on trust and faith in God when you accepted the call
• The reactions you received as you shared your call with others
• How the call affected your plans, your career, and your family

You may not have anything to say for some of these points, but the more vivid your story, the more it will help you understand what God wanted you to do when you were called.

Recall Your Dreams

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

Remember the enthusiasm you had when you came to work at your current ministry and when you accepted the job you have now. What were your dreams for what you would do and accomplish? Relive the early days and note how you have accomplished or expanded your dreams over time. Are you still dreaming today? Ask God to give you a fresh vision for your call.

Get the Big Picture

You might find it helpful (I know I do) to step back and see how your call fits into the bigger picture of God’s plan for humanity. Your call is not just about you and your job. It is a delegation from God to you to do something important in service to his mission. It is also important to the people God wants you to reach through your call. By understanding the metanarrative of the Bible, you set your work in the context of God’s work and will find it easier to set priorities and determine, of all the good things you could do, which ones are the priority from God’s perspective.

Studying the Bible’s metanarrative doesn’t need to take a lot of time. If you have twenty-one minutes, two videos from The Bible Project provide an excellent overview of the Bible’s metanarrative, the Old Testament Overview and the New Testament Overview

When I review the big picture of what the Bible reveals about God and humanity, I feel very confident that, however turbulent things appear in this moment of history, there is a solid foundation upon which to base my ministry. I see the importance of my work and I challenge myself to do my very best while relying on the Holy Spirit for direction.

Other Ways to Fulfill Your Call

It could be that your passion is dwindling because you have maxed out the opportunity to follow your call in your current position or current ministry. For example, as I worked with a youth pastor to help him regain his passion for his call to ministry, he realized that after more than a decade as a youth pastor he was ready to lead a church. The loss of passion was a signal that he was ready to step up to a new way of pursuing his call. He went on to successfully pastor a church of his own.

Define Your Call

Once you’ve done these reflections, write out a fresh definition of your call. If it has evolved from its original state, defining it in writing will help align your thinking with your call as you now understand it. You will also know more precisely what steps you should take to keep progressing towards your call’s fulfillment.

2. Reset Your Expectations

Sometimes reality can be so different from the dream! We set out working in our call expecting God’s blessing and protection, but while God does always work for our ultimate good, it does not mean that his ways will be exactly what we want them to be. If you are losing passion for your call, it may be time for a reality check. Acknowledging the following realities will change them from being surprises that might defeat you to potential events that you can plan for and overcome. You won’t feel defeated when they pop up.

There will Be Obstacles

For a number of years, things went very well for CCCC under my leadership, making for an unusually prolonged period of good times. I thought, “This is easy.” But I always qualified that statement by reminding myself, the board, and the staff that continuance of the current good times couldn’t be taken for granted. There will come a day of testing. I didn’t want them devastated if hard times or even normal times returned. “Don’t get cocky or overconfident,” I repeatedly said to myself.

Of course, we worked very hard to make the continuation of those wonder years more likely, but the time of testing did come, more for me than for CCCC. What kept me going was reflecting on my call. On a number of days, I repeated to myself, “I will not let these circumstances prevent me from fulfilling my call!” And with prayer and professional growth, I came through those years.

If you believe the good times are actually the ordinary times, then the first obstacle that arises might knock you down. Some ministries are difficult all the time. Maybe some are easy all the time. But most ministries will have their ups and downs. Work hard, do your best, and acknowledge that there will be tough times. Enjoy the good times while you have them. Do not let the hard times separate you from your call.

It Will Take Time

Sometimes it seems like all we are doing is planting seeds. Wouldn’t it be nice to harvest some of the seeds you have sown and watered over the years! But unrealistic timelines can become demotivating and lead you to wonder, “What’s the use?” One helpful way to keep your passion ignited is to see regular progress towards your hoped-for results.

Set realistic timelines and let God do what only he can do. Read my post How to Stay Inspired When You Are Only Halfway Up the Mountain.

You Will Have to Grow

There is a possibility that leadership is not your strength. Perhaps you misunderstood your call. Maybe it was to serve a mission rather than lead it. If you think this is a possibility, then read Maybe Leadership Isn’t For Me. More likely, though, you correctly heard your call to leadership but you need further equipping to lead well today.

I've had a series of five-year contracts with CCCC (I'm on my fourth). Some time before each renewal, I've said to the board chair, "I was the right person to be the leader when the last contract was signed. Am I still the right leader for the next contract? If not, can I become the right leader for the next five years, or am I not at all the right leader?" My goal is through personal and professional development to be a fresh, new leader perfectly suiting the organization's needs for the next contract period.

Undoubtedly you will have to invest in your personal and professional development over time so you can keep up with all the changes in our society that touch on your mission. You can’t expect that who you were twenty or even five years ago when you accepted your call will still be sufficient to fulfill your call today. Expect the need to learn and practise new skills to come up again and again through your career. Regularly research the best current thinking in your field of ministry. Continuous learning means continuous growth.

There May Be a Cost

There may be some costs that come with your call. For example, as you engage in the lives of your congregation or help people on the street, their stories and problems could take an emotional toll on you. Another example is that what is happening in the world around us could depress us. But we must accept the costs as part of the call and not let them beat us down. After all, Jesus did say to “count the cost” before engaging in ministry. There may be other costs you can identify with your call. Acknowledge them and find ways to mitigate them if you can. Be ready to bear with them if you can’t. As you face these weighty realizations, remember to keep a balanced perspective with all that is good about ministry. My soul, my soul must sing! is a great post that celebrates joy in the ministry workplace.

I highly recommend, as does everyone else who writes on this topic, that you have something apart from your vocational life that restores your soul and gives you joy. My post Work, Work, Work, Work! Is that all there is? will inspire you to emerge from work into a full life. Make family a priority. Find a hobby. Take time to enjoy God’s beautiful world.

State Your Expectations

Review this section and update your list of expectations. Prior to this, your expectations were probably assumed rather than stated, and that likely led to disappointment when they turned out not to be your experience. By listing your updated and maybe more realistic expectations, you won’t suffer disappointment. You are better prepared by knowing what goes along with your call and your passion will endure through it all because you will know your circumstances are just part of life.

3. Examine Yourself and How You Fulfill Your Call

There may be things about you that are holding you back from fulfilling your call. You need to smooth out your rough edges as a ministry leader. I know that, as much as I think the obstacles are “out there,” the ones that are really holding me back are very much “in here.” If you are losing enthusiasm for your call, it could be a sign that you have some personal attributes that you need to work on. My post A Self-Checkup for Ministry Leaders will help you work through those internal factors and discover what you can do to set yourself up for greater success. You don’t want to be your own stumbling block.

When you are doing a self-evaluation, it is a good time to also get some honest feedback from people who know you and care for you. You want to find people who truly desire your ministry success and who are willing to speak the truth to you. Listen carefully to them. If you are married, ask your spouse for their observations. No one knows you better than your spouse and no one is as invested in your personal success as your spouse is.

Out of this investigation, develop a personal development plan. Your passion should revive as you enthusiastically take positive action that will help you better live out your call.

4. Reexplore Your Ministry’s Vision/Mission

It could be you have simply fallen into a rut. Perhaps your work is so easy for you that there is no challenge anymore. I find that every time I dive into CCCC’s vision (our End Statement – CCCC members will be exemplary, healthy, and effective Christian ministries) I emerge energized, full of creative thoughts, and itching to get back to work. If you are in a rut, it may be a sign that you are ready for a bigger challenge. That challenge could come from expanding or deepening your vision for your current ministry or it could mean you are ready for a different role somewhere else.

My post, The Untapped Potential of Your Mission Statement, shows you how to explore your strategic statement. Although my passion was not dwindling at all, exploring the CCCC End Statement afresh pumped up my passion for my call and for CCCC many times over. It led to the discovery that CCCC as it was (and as far as it had come), was still just a glimmer of what it could be.

Conclusion

A friend of mine, a retired pastor, gave the closing speech at the 2007 CCCC conference at 95 years of age. John Richardson said his best advice for ministry leaders is, “Don’t die before you are dead.” Don’t give up. Keep going. God’s not done with you yet.

CCCC’s members can discuss this post in The Green.

Key Point: Keep your call fresh and vital!

The post Rekindle the Fire: A Fresh Passion for Your Call appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
John 10:1-4 (NASB)

Christ’s Call to Ministry

I love hearing ministry leaders tell their stories about how Christ called them into vocational ministry.

Every story is unique. No two are alike.

Every story is very personal.

And no one ever forgets their call story.

They treasure it!

Christ the Great Shepherd

The Initial Call to Ministry

When Jesus Christ enters the sheep pen, he knows all his sheep individually. He even knows them by name. And they know his voice. You’ve probably had the same experience I’ve had. You hear someone talking but can’t see them, and yet by their voice you know exactly who they are. As I read these verses, I can’t help but imagine that when the shepherd speaks, the sheep’s’ ears perk up, they turn their heads toward the voice, and they listen intently. And when the shepherd calls them out of the pen, they follow.

As Christian ministry leaders, Jesus called each one of us from the pen to go out through the gate and enter into vocational ministry.

Many of us were probably quite attentive to his voice at that time because many transitions come when we are in crisis or upset, and are looking for direction:

• It may be that we are unsettled in what we are currently doing, restless and needing a change.
• Perhaps we’re finishing up a seminary degree and anxious to find a place to serve.
• Maybe our world has turned upside-down and we are in crisis. Everything is changing and we need to find a way forward.
• Or it could just be an opportunity comes your way, and you wonder what to do about it.

In all these scenarios, we end up searching for what God wants of us. And thus we are particularly attentive to his voice at the time when we first come into ministry leadership. And we probably stay attentive for at least a while, earnestly seeking to discern what God wants us to do.

The Continuing Call While in Ministry

But as we mature in our leadership roles, we may find ourselves growing in confidence of our own abilities, and we may lose the sense of dependence on God, and gradually his voice grows dim as we focus on doing our very best for God based on our own self-reliance.

Yet once the sheep have left the pen following behind the shepherd, the shepherd doesn’t stop talking with his sheep. The shepherd walks ahead of them, still talking with them, and they continue to follow wherever the shepherd leads.

However far you have come in ministry since your initial call, Jesus is still going ahead of you and keeps calling you to follow him. We must continue to listen to his voice just as intently, just as closely, as we did when he first called us to ministry, because he knows the good works that he has in store for us to do, and he doesn’t leave us to guess what they are. If you continue to listen to our Great Shepherd’s voice just as earnestly as you did at the beginning of your ministry, you will be led to all that he has in store for you. And having heard Christ’s continuing call, respond to it just as eagerly as you did his initial call.

Blessing

Now [may] the God of peace,… the great Shepherd of the sheep … Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20

Key Thought: The Good Shepherd’s call to ministry becomes his guidance in ministry.

The post The Shepherd’s Voice appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

The Way It Is by William Stafford

There’s a thread that you follow.  It goes among
things that change.  But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

I’ve often said that there are threads of continuity woven through the fabric of time that is your life. You may not see while you are travelling how all the points you visit connect together, but the continuity is obvious in hindsight. In the midst of God’s work in your life, preparing you for leadership, you may feel everything is disjointed and there is no forward momentum as you stumble from here to there. You wander from one experience to another, never feeling like you are building towards anything, and then when you are ready, God gives you your leadership assignment. And you stand there amazed and look back over the landscape traversed and you realize you weren’t staggering at all. You were at all times on a direct course to your leadership role. It only looked like you were staggering because you didn’t know the destination, the leadership role God had for you. Every time you thought you were lurching into a new rabbit trail, you were actually being groomed for the leadership position you now have. I like that. That’s the excitement of letting the Lord lead. All good leaders are first and foremost followers, and God will use all of our learning experiences because they were part of his custom training plan for us.

A person’s steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way?
Proverbs 20:24

This poem also calls on us to keep our eyes on what God has called us to do. I have said many times that when you are surrounded by uncertainty and all the things that you do not know, hold fast to the one thing that you do know, the last call God gave you, and stay true to that one thing until you hear differently. Keep doing the one thing you do know and don’t worry about all the things you don’t know. At Tyndale Seminary I had no idea where God was leading me to, but that God was leading me was never in doubt. God told me to prepare for ministry, and as I feared for the future and worried about the present, the one thing I hung on to was the fact that I knew God wanted me in the MDiv program at Tyndale. That one fact kept me  going through all the hard times. What will sustain you? It may be that the one thing you know is that God loves you, so you cling to that.

One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see.
John 9:25

Don’t you ever lose sight of your call!

Here’s another poem that rang bells for me. I love this poem. It says exactly what I think! Enjoy!

To Be Of Use by Marge Piercy

The people I love the best
jump  into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like the water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

This poem speaks of the value and sanctity of work. The last stanza says that people were made to work, and more importantly, that they want to do good work, real work. I like the passion and enthusiasm for work that this poem talks about. I can resonate with that and my fervent prayer is that all of the staff members would experience the same joys that I get from work. 

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
Colossians 3:22

If you think I am crazy for enjoying my work, then read Genesis 2:15 – “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” God gave work to humanity before the Fall. Work is not cursed, it is part of our creation mandate. The Fall just made work more difficult by introducing thorns and other hardships. I believe I have been redeemed by God and therefore the work that he has given me has been redeemed as well (and it would not matter if it was ministry work or secular work).

Comments?  Thoughts?  You know what to do.  Use the comment box below.

Blessings to you!

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