"Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." ~Paul
What
minister cannot relate to this verse? We may not relate to all of
Paul's list in the prior verses summarized in "beside those things that
are without"; we may not relate to the word "all"; but the word
"care"--that is a weight that those in the ministry know.
Last year I shared some of that weight in
my meditation on the failings of
one young person in our church. (I shared that
here 2 weeks ago.) December to January for our ministries
here seem fatal at times to the spiritual growth of many of our young
people. We have few adults in the church, so we often concentrate our
hopes and efforts on a number of teenagers in our church, who are
faithful regardless of parents' lack of spiritual influence on their
lives. We hope that "getting them young" will help them to be solid
church members as they grow older. About now is the time when we should
be seeing some of this glorious hoped-for fruit, as many of those who
were teens when we began the church are now entering into adulthood.
But
alas, as they get older, the temptations also get stronger--more
adult-like. This last month, I might have written that meditation a few
times over. Many of our youth have fallen into different
sins--fornication, drunkenness, disrespect to parents, lying, having an
unbelieving boyfriend or girlfriend.
In fact, at times I have to remind myself to still feel the "care" of the church, to
not
be weary in well-doing. I have to fight against the temptation to not
care anymore about people's failures or to be cynical when I see
spiritual growth, to
not think when someone professes Christ,
"Well, we'll see..." But after numerous failures, you feel protective
for your heart against great excitement, because then the surprising
plummet into discouragement can be long.
While writing this, I
just received a text message from a former church member who recently
had a baby out of wedlock, asking to restore her relationship (I'm not
sure to what degree) to the church. Before that, I was meeting with a
current teen church member to discuss lack of church attendance because
of several issues of unsavory character over the Christmas school break.
Before both of those cases, in the last two months, we had more than a
handful of similar counseling sessions with other church members.
So for these latter two cases, I wanted to ignore them.
"Oh
Lord, can't I please go hide in a book for a while and forget scraping
my shins on dark, treacherous mountain passes trying to rescue another
trapped lamb?"
"Lord, please, I already filled my quota for
visitation this month! I'm trying to improve at reaching out to the
women, but did you have to send five my way at once?"
"Lord, I
already visited three others and sat in on sessions with others. I've
already heard of the failings of too many this season. Can't I let this
one go? I'm tired. I'm feeling lazy. (And they're willfully
disobedient.) Can't I just let this one come back to church when she
wants without having to be proactive to try to warn her from her way?"
And
sometimes, you might even get the impression that the flock thinks,
"What are you all worked up for? What are you hurt about? You chose this
job. [especially missionaries] We didn't ask you to be here. And
anyway, you're just a white person. You don't understand our culture."
So do we give up?
Of
course not. What a futile question. Paul, who had the care of several
churches, also said, "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's
sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
with eternal glory."
And aren't you glad for the parable of
Christ, the Good Shepherd, how he went seeking for the lost lamb and
called others to rejoice with Him when He found it? Nowhere in that
parable does He complain that He's had to do this before, in fact, too
many times lately (99)! Will He always have to do this?
Yes. We will always have this job. Because we have been given a gift from our Heavenly Father: the opportunity to
care for His church--the one He loved so much that He gave Himself for it to wash it clean.
Others
have their weaknesses. We have ours. "Who is weak, and I am not weak?"
And one weakness we shepherds need to watch out for is thinking too
highly of ourselves, and thus, losing patience and
care for others with their burdens.
"But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another."
And
let us not be weary, fellow shepherds, brothers and sisters in Christ,
in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we
have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto
all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
