I have to make a confession. While I dearly love my friends in ministry, going to a ministers retreat has challenges. It is the challenge of fighting the thought, “I’m not doing enough.” There are a LOT of things I could dive into on that one thought, but I want to leave it there. Others who go to these things know what I’m talking about.

But in that thought comes another thought: “Hang on to what the Lord has told you. Stay faithful. You really have heard the voice of God on this one.”

Those two voices take each other on at places like the Ministers Retreat and our District Council.

Pastoring is tough because of the expectation of others. Not just in your church, but in your denomination.

Pastoring is full of joy because of the call of God and staying obedient to his voice.

The task at hand is to get back to the joy-filled call in my life. Jean-Pierre de Caussade wrote this:

We find all our joy in fulfilling God’s pleasure — his happiness, his glory and the fact that he is our great and only delight. Once we have this foundation, all we need to do is spend our lives rejoicing that God is God and being so wholly abandoned to his will that we are quite indifferent as to what we do and equally indifferent as to what use he makes of our activities.

Let my life be wholly abandoned you, dear Lord.