Full-Time Joy

June 6, 2011

The last two weeks have felt like some of the longest in my life!  There are days I question God’s wisdom in choosing me to work in full-time ministry. “Full-time” in this context does not mean a five day forty hour work week.  It doesn’t mean a couple of busy weeks and then the pressure lets up.  It is constant. The responsibility is an impossible burden.  The reality is a physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual weight that will crush you if you try to carry it alone.

At Community of Faith we always talk about “doing life together.”  But this life is messy!  It involves hurt and grief and growth and tears. 

Doing life together means you listen and cry as a friend pours out their broken heart to you.

It means you counsel friends who are struggling in their marriage, encouraging them to continue walking through the “tunnel of chaos” to be all that God intends for them to be.

Doing life together means you take your friends to chemotherapy, you cry with them and rejoice with them at each twist of the cancer roller coaster.

It means you experience anger when faced with the devastating consequences of sin in a young life…again.

Doing life together means you laugh and cry with a young widow as she begins the process of grief at the loss of her husband and best friend, the father of her children.

Doing life together means you are overwhelmed by the depravity of humanity, the gravity of sin, the hopelessness of our world. Do we really hurt each other so easily? Do we really abuse children like that? Do we really enslave each other for our own gratification?

Doing life together means you run to the Savior again, and again, and again. You recognize that HE is our only hope. He IS our salvation. 

As difficult as all that may be, the pain is erased by the joy of doing life together!  What an honor to welcome new life into this world! What a gift to see the transforming hand of God at work in the life of a young couple!  What a pleasure to be the one who is called on in good times and bad! 

I am privileged to see God’s miracles take place on a regular basis!  I am reminded over and over of God’s goodness, His faithfulness, His forgiveness, His mercy, His constancy, His power, and His love. I have a front row seat!

So, thank you God, for choosing me. Thank you for giving me the gift of a life of full-time ministry. Thank you for allowing me a glimpse of your hand at work. Thank you for letting me have some small part of what you are doing. Thank you for opening the windows of heaven to me!

“How great is the Lord! His power is absolute! 

His understanding is beyond comprehension!  

Psalm 147:5