I was going to make the third post of my 3-part miniseries come from something in my archive of blog posts, but God has been showing me something the past few days that I really didn’t figure out until this morning. I guess I still have a hard time hearing Him, especially when I’m making a bee-line toward something I’m zealous about. So, this is a brand new post that I hope feeds off the recent two.
I’ve learned so much as an Associate Pastor the past couple of years, but the one thing that keeps coming up is how my zeal to make things work can also have a negative impact on people that I’m ministering to. What I mean by that is I can be so focused on my ministry at the expense of the people I minister to…not being sensitive to how they are doing, how they are feeling, and where their spiritual well-being truly is.
“I found that love is a lot more closely related to work than to play. It has a lot more to do with being a servant than with being a hero. When I set about the task of loving, I usually end up giving instead of receiving. Love inevitably costs me something…”
~ Bill Hybels
As a guy, I’m set on fixing things and making things right. That’s just the way I’m built, and it doesn’t help that I’m an engineer. However, when I get into my “fixing” mode, I tend to not be as perceptive to how someone else is doing. I just listen to the issues and try to “fix” the issues, but that’s only from the surface. There’s usually something deep down that I’m missing because I’m really not listening. Fixing the surfacy issues is all I’ve been concentrating on and, in essence, my “fix” becomes just a band aid.
This can be so apparent when it comes to relationships, especially in romantic ones. A man can be so focused on winning the girl that he doesn’t really think about where she is at in life, and how she’s doing, how she is feeling, and in general, her well-being. He’s focused more on his own feelings and whether or not he’s making progress with her. But, where does she fit in all of this? He has been blinded by the zeal to win her heart and has become self-centered and lacking nobility. There is no hero in that…there is no servanthood in that…there is no love in that.
Love does cost something, and it usually means setting yourself aside…sacrificing your desires – setting your needs and wants aside. As a pastor, I have my own metrics that measure “how well we’re doing” as a church. I can focus on numbers, I can focus on how much the offering was on Sunday, and I can focus on how well my ministries are doing – you know, the surfacy stuff – but my zeal for my calling can blind me from what is going on in each of the people God has entrusted me with.
I need to be reminded of why God has called me to be a pastor in the first place, and that’s to be a shepherd. It’s simple: each ONE matters. There’s no church building involved, there’s no awesome ministry program involved, and there is no concert-like worship experience involved. All it takes is love, and that involves some work on my part…on our part. It will take love that is sacrificial and we’ll need to ask God for the courage to do so. If we navigate our zeal towards loving people, then we can see lives impacted…not my way, but God’s way.
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
~ Philippians 1:3-6
