Some days...
Ministry is messy.
Some times in ministry people disappoint, things happen that burden you, and you can get discouraged.
Real ministry--the kind that gives you the privilege of seeing lives transform before your very eyes--is messy.
This has been one of those weeks.
We've had people we minister to relapse (again--another over dose), nearly lose their kids, hospitalized again, lose a job, etc.
Anyone who allows themselves to truly live life with their people understands what I'm talking about and feeling.
I have had friends in this same "profession" tell me from time to time that this isn't what they "signed up for."
And my response is then go and find something else to do with your life. People need the LORD and they need us to love them and lead them to Him. It isn't about you (me) so get over yourself and get to work. Yes, we can get discouraged at times but thankfully we are not the savior.
This specific ministry--a privilege--is a calling. God ordained. And certainly not for the faint of heart.
It gets messy.
When one guy doesn't show up in the shelter by curfew so staff start calling the hospital, jail, morgue a couple of days later...only to have them re-surface with a lame excuse and looking ten years older as the last trip to their past has caught up with them for the moment...Grace.
As a loved one has another drug overdose but it "isn't their fault" again, and the same treatment is prescribed that hasn't worked the past few times... Grace.
As DHS comes to the house three times in one week and the cops have been there six times and everyone looks at each other not really knowing what to do because there are no easy answers or real solutions in the moment and I just stand there with them...Grace.
As a sweet little five year old tells me that she wishes I was her mommy because she doesn't have one and gets passed around from person to person to care for her as she has no stable emotional caretaker...Grace.
As a woman asks for a refund for her furniture because she didn't get approved for the apartment she thought she was going to get and is now facing homelessness until she finds something...Grace.
As an employee struggles with a very difficult personal situation and the pain and suffering in their eyes burns right through you, yet they show up and work hard every day without complaint...Grace.
As I tried to teach a Moonbeam class on the Bible tonight I ended up holding a child on my lap as they cried into my shoulders for thirty minutes starting to realize that life isn't fair.. and that how can God love them if their own parents don't want them? ...Grace.
We all have our own stories and the details do not matter but the people matter to God and should be brought before the Father who knows it all, and who tells us to love and lead anyway.
Ministry is messy.
Go get your hands dirty.
Acts 20:24;
24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
