Winter 1995

ARTICLE TOOLS

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When you feel hard-pressed by the demands and difficulties in ministry, it helps to know you're in good company.

Like the apostle Paul's.

"We've been surrounded and battered by troubles," Paul writes, "but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken" (2 Cor. 4:8-9, The Message).

One big demoralizer in ministry is not having enough people to do the work, and here at LEADERSHIP we've been short-staffed for three months. After an extended, thorough search for the right associate editor, we thought we'd found our person--and it didn't work out. We'll have to live with more work than people for a while longer.

The same day I received that disappointing call, the mail brought two letters criticizing me or my work. Vance Havner once said that in ministry, you need the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. I guess I haven't achieved rhino status.

My family and I are moving soon (within the area), a happy move, yet major financial decisions stress me. Friday I got a call from our attorney saying that the seller's attorney had pulled a move I thought was patently unfair. I felt anger, but I was too busy to really deal with it.

I took all this home from work with me, and when I got home, the front storm door broke. We had guests coming for dinner; they got lost and arrived an hour late. I joked with my wife, Karen, "I know God wants to refine my character, but does he have to do it all in one day?"

On Sunday I preached, and it happened to be on a difficult and controversial topic. I sweated over that sermon, and afterward, I felt relieved and good, yet ...

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