Mondays have been difficult. I shared how I felt at the supervisory meeting, but I really didn't get any response. Or one that satisfied me. So I again begin to think...'it's me' having difficulty... making it difficult... being difficult.
But yesterday I read in my little white book:
Ministry can be a thankless job.
Not that people don't appreciate the efforts of the minister who is proclaiming "the Gospel of God."
Not that people aren't affirming. They usually are. But ministry can be frustrating-especially when ministering to people whom you can't help in the way you wish you could- if you could only work a miracle.
St. Paul probably felt that way while he wrote this letter to the Thessalonians during a difficult time in Corinth.
We all are ministers in our own way-even when we aren't getting paid. The Lord is present with us in the Spirit.
But unless we have within us an experience of Christ's presence through His Spirit, of Christ acting upon this person through our ministry, and unless we believe that through the ministry of Christ, something indeed is happening-we may not feel we've accomplished much.
I may not always get the kind of satisfaction I'd like to have, or the results I'd have choreographed. But if I remain in the Lord, then the Lord will be present, acting through me, in all I do.
Then I will have provided a ministry of the Lord that might not otherwise have been there.
Those words encouraged me. The John 15 vine and branches readings... dwelling... and remaining of this past week also have spoken to my heart.
Sometimes it's just His words and they alone that can make sense of all the swirling in my head... in my life...
and then I see the light again on the counter as I make my morning coffee...
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