hampster wheel

I am a pastor. The reason I do what I do is for God, because of God, and only accomplished through God. But sometimes I can become so absorbed into my work that God becomes an afterthought. God becomes an element of what I do instead of its very foundation. I am embarrassed for even admitting to this, but every once in a while this happens to me. I can always tell when I lose my focus and the motives of ministry become cloudy. Anytime I get into this place I am tired and overwhelmed with frustration, because nothing I try to accomplish seems to land. At times like these I'm a hamster running on a wheel. My legs have run a marathon, but they haven't taken me anywhere.

As our age increases with technology and information, the ministry bar is in rapid ascent. This is not a bad thing, but a good and healthy thing. That is if your foundation is in alignment. In other words, centered on and relying totally on God. When that focus is moved even a few clicks off center... well, that's when you begin to work harder than you have ever worked only to stay put in the spot you currently are. Some may be able to make seemingly quick strides in ministry, but will eventually fall by the wayside, and it's because God has lost His place in their life. If we are going to make any kind of impact for Him, we are going to have to stay completely dependant upon Him. No matter how talented we are, who we have on our staff, what magazine awards our innovation, or how many hours we put into our ministry, God must be our air supply. If he is not we are nothing more than a ministry fad. I have seen a ton of rockstar pastors have moral failures and it is because somewhere along the lines God got reprioritized. I would have to be a fool to exclude myslef from the possibility of this happening. God must be my air supply.

No wonder God tells us, the tired and weary, to come to Him, because His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt 11). When we are tired and weary and frustrated and beat up and hopless and needing a win in life and rethinking if we were ever called to begin with- it is these times that communicate to us that we need to regain our focus and make it about Him again. When we are putting 100 percent of our energy into ministry and seem to be making no difference at all, it is probably an indicator that God has been reprioritized. You are tired and weary. It's time to get off the hamster wheel and and instead of running in place, run to Him. We can't help but be successful when we rely on Him the way we did when we started this thing. The only difference in this kind of success and the success you hope to get on the hamster wheel is that you may not get the credit... He will.

He DESERVES the credit.

I think too often those involved in ministry use the scipture in Matthew 11 to minister to others, but rarely allow it to minister to them. Pastors with moral failures, the ones who ran away from the call of God only 5 years into taking a ministerial position, ex-Christians- these were just people who were on the wheel and couldn't swallow enough pride at once to get off and run to Him.

If you are in the ministry and are at a place where you are frustrated because you are constantly working, but are rarley seeing results it may be because the person you are relying on to deliver success is you. Slow down. Revisit priorities and foundations. Do you pray the way you used to? Do you celebrate God the way you used to? Are you too tired to lift your hands to Him anymore? Do you do too much and trust too little? Are you tired? Are you weary? Come to Him.