Walking in Ministry

The sun danced on the rolling waves as they bowed upon the warm sandy beaches. A light breeze from the vast expanse of the ocean refreshed all the senses with its salty, cool, marine air. This was a perfect day at one of my favorite places on this earth, New Brighton State Beach near Santa Cruz, CA. Charlene and I would take daily long walks on this beach. As we held hands, we would sometimes share the details of our day, dream of our future together or simply walk silently enjoying the moment. This was one of those moments, perfect beach weather, walking with my beautiful young bride, and then I stepped on something warm, soft and mushy and it pushed between my toes. I instinctively hopped on one foot with a yell of terror as the pungent odor filled my nose. Dog Poop! Somebody must have been walking a Saint Bernard which had just eaten two full bags of Extra Fiber Big Dog Chow. Gagging as I hop into the water and let the waves wash away the “stuff”, I am now filled with anger, disgust, and nausea. In an instant when all was perfect, suddenly was replaced with thoughts of drowning some guy walking his Saint Bernard on the beach.

At times ministry can be like that as well. It takes just one step into somebody else’s dog poop to ruin the day. Our full attention and thoughts focus on that smelly, irritating, nauseating poo. You know those times I am talking about. After you have given your best leading Sunday morning worship, Ms. Spiritual walks up and says, “Good sermon Pastor, but its too bad the Holy Spirit didn’t show up today, like it did when Pastor Moses (who could part the Red Sea each Sunday) would preach…now that was powerful preaching.” Or maybe the phone call from a starved sheep, who feels they are not being “fed” by your teaching, even though they only attend a third of the time. And we can step in the smelly poo, by being overly critical of our own missteps in the sermon, in relationships, in not fulfilling a task or role like we feel we should, etc. Being focused in the poo, robs us of the joy of what God is doing around us and through us as his Shepherds.

It is a privilege and joy to serve as Shepherd of God’s flock, and when we look around we can see the Great Shepherd at work in people’s lives through us. He is encouraging those ready to give up, through our affirming words and prayers. He is transforming lives from a worldly view to God’s view by the renewing of their mind, through our teaching in small groups, sermons, counsel and writing. He provides hope, peace, joy, and forgiveness to the flock through our ministry even in the simplest, ordinary act. God uses us as shepherds/pastors for his purpose and will, a gift from Christ to his flock.

An encouragement to my friends, my fellow Shepherds, and specifically a reminder to myself, be careful of dwelling on, being overly sensitive, or overreacting to the poo as we walk in ministry. It’s a picture perfect day and God is walking beside us.

Share one story of where God has used you to bring hope, joy, encouragement, or truth to another within the past month. Why did it affirm and bring joy to you?