This Is Gonna Hurt

Every preacher will be hurt. Some are surface wounds and some will respond to them like the little kid who falls on some concrete and makes a bigger deal of it than it is. But other wounds are deep. They cut hard. 

They make us want to rethink life, they challenge our concept of purpose, reason, and conviction to continue. These deep cuts push us to consider our effectiveness. Frankly, they make even the heartiest of our guys consider, yes, quitting. 

Perhaps that is the season you find yourself in. Perhaps it comes from a weariness, your ministry survived the pandemic but now you find yourself tired with a tiredness you can’t shake. Maybe it’s a thorn in the flesh, a messenger that certainly seems to be from satan that will not leave you along, a person, or sin, or weakness you seem to not be able to rid your soul of. Or maybe it’s finances. There are no more resources and the hole keeps getting deeper. You’ve began to envy the wicked, or even the not wicked who seem to always be moving on up, and you want your kids to have more, your wife to not have to worry about it all the time. 

Regardless, it’s there. You hide it away but it comes back. May I make a suggestion to you for today? Take some time. Press the rewind button of your heart. Go back. Back to when you first began to consider ministry. Back to when that consideration became a possibility. Back to that first job you accepted. Now, are you ready for a very important question? Why’d you do it? Why’d you get into this? What were your hopes and dreams? 

There is more than one good answer to that question, and in the same way there is more than one bad answer. I don’t know why you decided to pursue a life of ministry, but I do know why you didn’t! You didn’t for any of those reasons listed above. You didn’t get in it to wear yourself out mentally, physically, and spiritually. You didn’t get into it to nurse a throne in the flesh, be it a person or an issue. You didn’t get into it get into it expecting to make a lot of money and live on the same level as everyone else. 

So, may I ask you to dream again. To rest and breath and focus on all the right reasons that have become cloudy by the fogs of frustration and fatigue. And, drop a few things, the world will keep spinning, and get back to doing what you got into ministry for. You’ll find a lot of peace in that. Don’t quit, reset! 

God bless you. Remember, we love you.