Have you ever felt like your spiritual work accomplished little? Did you just get tired of it?

Tired Stones on the long gravel ramp, Peru, 2008

Tired Stones on the long gravel ramp, Peru, 2008

I have, especially when I served as a pastor. The visits, the meetings, the paperwork, the sermons all took so much time and energy and achieved mostly invisible results.

Some of this happened because my gifts are prophet and teacher, not pastor-teacher. That did not become clear until pastoral ministry was stripped away from me.

So, why did I work so hard anyway? The simple answer has two sources: on the intellectual side seminary taught me that ministry will be isolating and frustrating; and in practice one soon learns that pastors are rewarded for their activity, not their spiritual example and message.

That is past, however. Now I make a living in a secular job. I live faith by situation, not by  conforming to religious prescriptions. And I am enjoying it.

Should I?

After all, I was trained for the high calling of pastor-priest (tongue-in-cheek). Actually, that status serves religion, but God tires of it, I think.

ROM828Through it all I blindly, sometimes naively, followed the Bible’s teaching that to do right is a higher value than doctrinal conformity. “Brothers and sisters, we can’t allow ourselves to get tired of doing what is right” (2 Thessalonians 3:13 God’s Word©). God used me simply because I was available, not because I obeyed doctrine. While religion provided an income I got tired of the intrigues.

Now, I just keep teaching and doing what the Bible says serves Jesus: attend to the poor, the sick and the outcast; provide food, water and clothes as God provides. Call people to obey God.

In religious terms I have abandoned my “call” and accomplish nothing as a security guard watching over property and equipment against vandalism and theft.

I can’t say what I ever accomplished, or what I accomplish now. But I have the peace that I am where God wants me. The rest is God’s business.

Whatever the results, “We can’t allow ourselves to get tired of living the right way. Certainly, each of us will receive {everlasting life} at the proper time, if we don’t give up. Whenever we have the opportunity, we have to do what is good for everyone, especially for the family of believers” (Galatians 6:9-10 God’s Word©).

 

See also from Feb 7, 2013 my Never Get Tired

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