On Vocational Ministry

If you can stomach doing anything else, you should do anything else.

If your reason to take up this role is anything other than the person of Jesus, you shouldn’t take up this role.

Any other reason–position, platform, authority, skill–propping you up will inevitably snap underneath you. And you won’t be the only one hurt in the fallout; there will be sheep in the flock, children of God, who were supported by you, just as you were supported by that flimsy, insufficient reason.

The LORD will let those other reasons snap underneath you. He won’t let you think you’re doing this yourself. He will heal and comfort and redeem in the aftermath, absolutely, yes–but He will get glory for His own Name.

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God, forgive us when we’ve acted like this calling is a glamorous one, one that everyone must aspire to.

Forgive us also when we’ve made it so common, expanding its definition for fear of people feeling “left out”–as if this is something desirable!–that we forget the weightiness of it. Let that weight serve as the reminder that we can’t carry this by ourselves, that no reason other than Jesus will sustain us through it.

Forgive us for building systems in which we feel we must do it ourselves, by our own talent and strength. Clear the stage and remind us that You will be glorified with or without us.

Give us the purity of heart to see Jesus more clearly and walk with him more closely, until every other reason fails and falls away.