I would like to begin by asking: “How are you being?”
Church leadership comes with a whole lot of jobs that appear as if they will not wait. They have to be done, and done now! There are a lot of stresses and strains that demand your focus and attention one way or the other. If we are not careful, the business of our lives and indeed the business of our ministry can get in the way of some very important things such as our relationship with our families and indeed our relationship with Jesus himself.
Can you remember the last time you just simply hung out with Jesus? I know sometimes I wake up in the morning and can’t pin point a time when I last did this. Sometimes when I go to read my Bible I fear that I will find some dust on the shelf or that a spider has spun a web on one corner like you see in some cartoon strips. We can get so caught up in the ‘doing’ of life that we can forget to simply ‘be’.
It is vitally important to remember why we got into ministry in the first place – because of our love of Jesus and our dedication to Him. We really do need to guard against letting things take over from the priority of spending quality time with Him. If we do our whole purpose and ministry will begin to lose focus and we will start to do things from our own strength rather than relying upon God. We must carve out time in our busy schedules and perhaps even make a few sacrifices to establish a pattern of behaviour that places Jesus firmly back in the centre of our lives.
The chorus of the classic song by Helen H. Lemmel puts it this way:
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.”
Without a steady connection to the source of spiritual life and power, we will begin to see this diminish in our lives. If we are called to lead others into the throne room and presence of God, we need to be leading ourselves into His presence first. If we are called to disciple others, we need to disciple ourselves first.
Take the time to look full into Jesus’ face. Begin to see things from His perspective again. Things will become clearer the more time we spend with Him.
So I ask again: “How are you being?” rather than “How are you doing?” I’m sure you are doing a lot! But it is the ‘being’ that we need to work on, myself included.
“A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t” – Charles H. Spurgeon