Currents that shape your soul
July 1, 2001
As I watched my friend being ordained, and thirty pastors gather around and lay hands upon one head, I felt a surge of joy—and a simultaneous sinking awareness that my friend, though gifted, would not find ministry easy. This newly commissioned pastor had been sent to a church of 14 to apply cardiac paddles to a patient that had flat-lined. As in the E.R., the procedure was risky and the outcome unknown. When I visited my friend's new church, the pianist hired for the previous week had not worked out, so the service went on without any music. The nursery worker didn't show up and didn't tell anyone she wasn't coming. Bags with fresh loaves of bread sticking out waited to be passed out to visitors, but few loaves would be given out that day. Welcome to ministry. Exiled to a rocky, barren isle, John wrote to Christians: "In Jesus we are partners in suffering and in the Kingdom and in patient endurance." We prefer to hear that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, not "partners in patient endurance." But Christianity in general and ministry in particular is a marathon. When pain knifes your side and sweat stings your eyes, you have to keep running. Fifteen years ago I wrote Secrets of Staying Power, which drew on national research to answer, "What discourages pastors most—and how can those things be overcome?" I grouped the answers into five "cries": 1. "I can't see any progress." This caused Martin Luther to become deeply discouraged with his congregation. Despite all his preaching, his people remained godless, he felt. In 1530, Luther actually went on strike and refused to preach for a time. 2. "I'm not able to use my gifts." Usually, preaching and giving spiritual guidance are trumped by administrative ... Insights
The great joy of the solitary life is not found simply in quiet, in the beauty and peace of nature, songs of birds, etc., nor in the peace of one's own heart, but in the awakening and attuning of the heart to the voice of God—to the inexplicable, quiet, definite inner certitude of one's call to obey Him, to hear Him, to worship Him here, now, today, in silence and alone, and that this is the whole reason for one's existence. This makes one's existence fruitful and gives fruitfulness to all one's other (good) acts and is the ransom and purification of one's heart, which has been dead in sin.
True Cause and Effect
It is atonement that makes repentance, not repentance that makes atonement.
Better Reception
Receptivity is not a single thing; it is a compound rather, a blending of several elements within the soul. It is an affinity for, a bent toward. … It may be increased by exercise or destroyed by neglect. It is not a sovereign and irresistible force which comes upon us as a seizure from above. It is a gift of God, indeed, but one which must be recognized and cultivated as any other gift.
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