Tis So Sweet

Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus,

I sat in a service not too long ago as this song was being sung by the congregation. It is a wonderful hymn. I just wanted to be honest with as I write this because this is a place where I express some frustrations and disappointments. As I listened to this great hymn, my mind went to thinking about trusting Jesus. I have no problem with singing Tis So Sweet.... Neither do I have problems with the theology. I do have trouble with the people who sing it! You may ask what are you saying? I am saying in the 17+ years of ministry I have seen, experienced, and been on the receiving end of some very unkind, unwarranted, and maybe unchristian treatment. Humans are basically all the same. They are fickle, self centered, and self absorbed. They will treat you fairly as long as they are being, petted, and catered to and getting what they want but when they don't get their way they turn on you like a rabid dog, even though they say they support you, what they actually mean is they support you as long as you do what they want you to do, or you have to understand that people will say they want change, as long as I realize they meant that change was not what they really wanted, they just wanted to keep or get a pastor so being agreeable to change was a good thing to say, even if they did not mean it. So what does this all mean: It means for me that even though someone tells me something I may not believe it right away, I need to see something that is told me backed up by actions. People can talk all they want, but it is the walk that aligns up with the talk that I trust. So I can trust in Jesus, because he has never told me one thing and done another, He has never given me reason to doubt Him, and never will. Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus,

DIRTY JOBS

One of the tv shows that my children and I enjoy watching together is a show called "Dirty Jobs". Maybe you have watched it, maybe you haven't. If you haven't it's about a guy named Mike Rowe, (who does the voice for Ford truck commercials, and is the voice for Deadliest Catch), that goes around and working with people who have dirty jobs. He has sorted garbage, worked on a pig farm, been in sewage treatment plant, been a plumber, picked up rotting dead animals off the road side, harvested "gooey" ducks, etc.. Just about every "dirty" job there is he has helped to do. Some have been funny, some have been totally disgusting, some almost deadly but all have been dirty jobs. At the end of the show he sometimes asks for the viewers to submit their idea for a dirty job.
Thinking about "Dirty Jobs" this week got me to consider there is one dirty job that Mike has yet to do. You may agree or not but the one dirty job I would like to see Mike do is that of a pastor. I have discovered that pastoring can be dirty. Let me explain: in pastoring we have to maintain a clean and sterilized image, guard our emotions, keep a smile and make everyone happy. If you can do this, then you either are one step away from the funny farm or you have taken lessons from some great politician. However, in the ministry, especially the pastoral ministry the job can become dirty. "Crap" gets slung at you all the time. Crap comes when people don't get their way, and demand to have things or have their way irregardless of what is best for the church or the collective well being of an entire church. Crap is the reaction and accusations that people fling at you when they do not get what they want or you don't respond to someones every whim. "Crap" comes when people work together to achieve/discern the will or direction of God and then when you begin to go in that direction people are not happy because it's not their way. In pastoring you either get to be a master at dodging flung dung or you get hit with it. No matter if you dodge, or get slammed with the dirt of pastoring there is still the clean up, the smoothing over, or pacifying of disgruntled people, (the reality of should they be pacified will be addressed later.). This is one dirty job that I would like to see Mike do.

Who Am I?

One of my reasons for writing this blog is to share my feelings, and give a glimpse into life. Through college, and various professional training events, I have participated in personality profiles, temperament inventories, spiritual gift surveys, etc... I find some of them interesting, some far fetched, and a couple too accurate. A couple of those tools have pegged my personality and describes me accurately. Those tools have compared as sharing some of the same qualities as Moses. Thinking about that I have looked at Moses. One of the first conversations we read Moses having with God is in Exodus 3:11: "And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" Of that conversation I relate well with Moses when he asks God the question: "Who am I?" I think that just about every Monday, and sometimes on Sunday: Who am I? or better yet: "What am I doing?" Like Moses I keep looking for excuses, I keep trying to see if God has a plan B for this thing called ministry. He never lets me out of this thing though. I can associate well with Moses. I know how it is to attempt at getting people organized to go in the direction God is directing only to have a small faction, rise up and make the statement: "We don't want to go in that direction. We want to go this way? or can we have a vote and get a new leader and go back to Egypt." Some days it's hard to be a pastor because the people you have been called to lead, don't support you. When I find myself asking myself: Who Am I? I return to scripture and look at what God told Moses: "Certainly I will be with you!" Exodus 3:12. God will be with me. No matter what comes no matter what takes place God will be with me during the time of lows, during the time of great times, and all times. Knowing this helps me to get out of bed on Monday.

Why I named my blog AAAAARRRRRRGH

If you happened to stumble upon this blog, you may be asking: "Why is this called AAAAARRRRRRGH?" Well it fits me. Those are the words that my favorite comic strip character utters when he makes an attempt at kicking the proverbial football. If you have read the comic strip you know that from time to time Lucy holds a football for Charlie Brown to kick. Just as he gets there ready to kick the ball she yanks it away. He goes flying up in the air, screaming: AAAAARRRRRRGH , and then lands on his back, dazed and his aspirations like him are flat on his back!
That is how I feel sometimes in ministry, and maybe you do too. You work on a project or a ministry initiative, possibly even with an emerging leader, and just as your getting there to see the thing launched into the air, Lucy, or someone like her, yanks it out and your left flat on your back.
However, I admire Charlie Brown. He keeps getting up, and trying it again. Time after time he attempts to kick the football and never does. I find myself disappointed at times with people, frustrated and even hurt, but if I am to be the Pastor/Leader/Coach that God has called me to be I must get up, and try again with hopes that someday I will get to kick that ball!!!!