THE CALL: IS MINISTRY A CAREER?
The way we view our task makes all the difference in the world--and in the church.
Ben Patterson
July 1, 1990
I was kneeling on the steps of the chancel with several hands laid on my shoulder. The occasion was my ordination into the ministry, and the pastor was praying a seemingly interminable prayer for God's blessings and power to be upon me. My legs had started to cramp. Sweat was soaking through my black robe, a garment whose origins were in Northern Europe, and whose wearer was in Southern California on a balmy May evening. And my knees felt like they were piercing the scarlet carpet.
Does he think I need more prayer than usual? I thought. Then, as if in answer to my question, he prayed, "Lord, as Ben feels the weight of these hands upon his shoulders, may he feel the weight of what he has been called to do."
Amen.
"But may he feel also the strength of your everlasting arms bearing him up."
Amen and amen!
That is what ministry has been like ever since: an impossible, unbearable job accompanied by an improbable, inexplicable strength.
The apostle Paul took inventory of his vocation and asked, "Who is equal to such a task?" My version of that question comes several times a year as I step into the pulpit: Patterson, I wonder, just what do you think you are doing here? Who are you, of all people, to tell several hundred people what God thinks?
The question has struck me on other occasions, too. One Sunday a man from my checkered past came to see if the preacher was indeed the same Ben Patterson he had known years earlier. I'm sure he wondered what I was doing leading a service of worship. Seeing him and remembering my past, I wondered myself.
Countless hours I have sat with people crushed by life's weight. I have tried to convey something of the mercy and hope of Jesus. Verily, Patterson, just what do you think you are doing here?
I would ...
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