The Wrong Side of Zeal

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

Behind the Scenes

Here is post two of the 3 part mini-series.

Behind the Scenes dated Tuesday, October 17, 2006

“God is in Control.”  That’s always easy to say, but sometimes it’s hard to follow through on what we say because we really want to be in control.  Many times the situations in our life that we face often result in us trying to take control of them to fit what we think would be best for us.  If God isn’t doing it the way we want, then maybe He’s really not doing anything at all.  Someone dear to me wrote, “God becomes weak which allows the devil to gradually chip away at our trust, peace, and joy. Without trust, we take our lives into our own hands, desperate for some kind of control since God can no longer step in on our behalf.”  This is so very true.

“…for it is God who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose.”

~ Philippians 2:13

“…when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.”

~ 1 Thessalonians 2:13

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

~ Romans 8:28

God is always working in your life and paving the way for things in your life.  Sometimes things are just not apparent and you really don’t see anything happening, but that’s when God is working all the more.  You might be stuck in a rut or you feel like you’re going nowhere, but God knows what you’re going through and He wants to make things happen for you.  This is when your faith is tested…when you have to believe God’s sovereignty in your life, so you move on with full joy knowing and believing that He has everything under control.

You can look at your past and put puzzles together to see how God was orchestrating certain things in your life.  Back then it most likely didn’t make sense at all, but when you look at how some things seemed to happen almost coincidentally…that’s no coincidence…that’s God working in your life and perfectly placing them at the right moment to get you where you’re at.  Sometimes, you just have to be aware that God is working.  You need to look at things He’s doing and where He is leading you.  I think that this is the toughest thing to do, but I do know that when you spend time with Him, read His Word, and have that solitude to just listen to Him, those things are much more apparent to you.

There is definitely an excitement knowing that God is working for your good.  Things may not happen today, but they might happen tomorrow.  We just have to have the joy knowing and believing that He’s still there…that He’s still working.  We can’t let fear, doubt, worry, and anxiety hamper or tarnish our joy and our faith in Him and His abilities.  He is much bigger and much greater than we could ever imagine.  Those things He was working on in your past may be directly related to what He’s about to do for you today.  How exciting is that?