All to Him I Owe

A retired pastor recently told me that he used to call Mondays “autopsy day.” It was the day that he processed his sermon, his motives, and his conversations from the previous day. Another pastor recently posted on his Facebook page, “The plight of preaching–Monday morning, you seem to only remember the dumb things you said.” The words of these men resonate with me! I am like a medical examiner on Mondays. In addition to my mental autopsy, I also leave Sundays in an administrative mindset, wanting to fix and adjust things I observed on Sunday. What a combination: I’m a medical examiner and an administrative junky all wrapped into one package on Mondays. If I looked like I felt, you would see a man in a clinical gown feverishly typing on his laptop, while talking on his blue tooth.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to be married to me! Not only does my wife have to keep up with the ever-changing schedule of ministry and the people needs that are constantly present, she also has to live with me, a man who carries the weight of ministry and rides the roller coaster of emotions that go with that.

There is no question that ministry life is an exhausting life. It takes a toll on our bodies, mind, emotions, and family relationships. People outside the pastoral ministry jokingly say, “It must be nice to work one day a week.” If you are in camp ministry you might have heard someone say, “It must be nice to just play games with kids all day.” But for those of us in the ministry, we love it and wouldn’t trade it for anything else; but we know the work that is involved and that it really is exhausting!

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote a letter to his friend the Reverend Leslie Land. He was burdened by the news that Land had grown very ill due to over exhaustion in the work of the ministry. The doctor-turned-minister filled his letter with both practical and spiritual advice. One section of the letter is especially noteworthy for us today. Lloyd-Jones said, “The devil always seeks to take advantage of fatigue or any physical disability and always tries to discourage! His one objective only and always is to separate us from Christ. If he can do that by making us concentrate on ourselves, our symptoms, our work, or our future, he is content.”

A mind that is resting in God can bring you great encouragement. I leave you with the closing words of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ letter to Reverend Land: “Rest in Him, and abandon yourself entirely to Him.”