Do Not Grow Weary

If you have been in ministry for any amount of time, there have been times you might describe as "Blue Mondays." A lady named Miss Charlotte that worked with my family when I was coming up as a child often made that statement. But I also remember her constantly singing hymns as she worked around the house and in the fields. She experienced "Blue Mondays," BUT she smiled and praised the Lord in song as she went through the discouragements of her life.

Ever had a "blue Monday?" Let me define it from a ministry perspective. You have already spent 26 hours this week in 5 different hospitals with church members and their families with surgeries and intense/life-threatening ailments; altered all your plans to go with a family in crisis due to a wayward child; counseled three couples with conflicted marriages; drove over to the church at 10 PM because Aunt Susie left her umbrella after church on Wednesday night; decided that since you were there, you would type out the bulletin and run it off and you leave the church office at 1 AM because you need to go back to Duke Thursday morning for open heart surgery for one of those church members you visited Monday while he was having a catherization. You decide to take lunch Friday with your wife because you need to make 2 outreach visits Friday afternoon. While you were out to lunch, a deacon and his wife came to the church office at 12:10 PM and wanted to get into the church to pick up something on their way home. Early Saturday morning, your doorbell rings and it is the deacon chair. He says, "someone complained to him that you were not in the office Friday morning when you should have been. Can you please explain yourself?"

You've hardly had no time to "be still and know God" this week and now the devil has a foothold on what little time you will have to study today. You wonder---how can I stand before these people and proclaim His Word without putting too much of myself in the sermon

Well---here's the answer:

1. Stay true to God's call upon your life.
2. It is physically impossible to be in 4 places at one time.
3. If you were honestly "on mission" do not whip yourself up that someONE complained.
4. Understand that people with an "agenda" can never be satisfied even if you could be in 4 places at one time and they sometimes don't even care about the truth.
5. Trust God and be faithful to His call upon your life.
6. Remove yourself and proclaim His truth - never change your message to pacify or appease.
7. Strive to do daily what God has called you to do in ministry as faithfully as you can and leave the results to God.
8. Think about the people's lives that you have touched in the name of Jesus and forget the critic.

One day recently as I was driving home from a meeting in one of our member churches that night, I recollected the events of the day. I had had breakfast, lunch, visited on the field with, met at SEBTS, been in meetings with, etc. 22 pastors; 2 new church planters; 2 men from BSC about church planting; ran into 3 former pastors while at SEBTS; spoke with a couple of people from BSC about some upcoming events; called a couple of Associational Missionaries about a couple of issues; had several cell phone conversations with pastors, pastor search chairs, etc. I think I counted up more than 35 people from our member churches, plus several others in Baptist life. I chuckled to myself---all I will hear about today is "Dougald was not in the office today."

Sure enough -- that's all I heard about the day. That's OK -- God knows and I know the truth. In eternity, that is all that will matter. Therefore, trust God and keep going forward.