No one who has served in ministry for any amount of time has been unscathed by heartache. Whether circumstances were self-inflected, brought on by a well-intentioned parent or parishioner, or perhaps due to no fault of anyone or anything; when you give your heart to other people in ministry it will get broken. How do we deal with this hurt? There are several ways that come to mind.......
1. Never let it happen again!
In this approach, we get hurt and therefore decide to never let anyone close again, the old hurt me once shame on you, but hurt me twice shame on me" mentality. Now this is certainly effective for heart break prevention but will always lead us to a place of living outside of community which always leads to an unhealthy life of no accountability, love, or encouragement!
2. Keep your eye on that one!
In this approach you never say never, but you sure are quick to judge others and measure them against that person(s) who hurt you before, often times even the church as a whole. You got hurt in church once so therefore all churches are hurtful! now this may seem obvious, but most often life can bring justification to this mindset. Eventually we begin to live life in such a way that we have it figured out, and everyone else is wrong and this too is contrary to the way students of Jesus must live.
3. From Simon to Peter......
In this approach it helps to look at the ministry of Peter. He was hurt by his hero's final day and the disappointment of no powerful ministry movement. When the circumstances got difficult he denied that he even knew Jesus. The loud mouth, first to speak, always right Simon, had shown glimpses of greatness but failed. This was his fault, no ones else. He gave up and went back fishing (John 21:3) Now it was in this encounter that Jesus once again asked Peter to join him in ministry.
What's all this got to do with me? It has a lot to do with me. I've been hurt, I've inflicted heartache on myself, and at times I have walked away to just go back to what is safe. No matter where God finds you right now, he asks..."Do you Love me?" then feed, Shepard, nourish my students! don't give up, take heart, sit at the feet of Jesus for a while but don't give up! You may have been hurt by a parent, a leader, a pastor, or the Church, but don't give up on her, the Bride is still beautiful, she is still the Bride, as ugly as she might be at times, she is still the Apple of Jesus' eye, love her, forgive her, cherish her and lead her to the wedding feast of the Kingdom!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment