“Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28).
When Paul was naming his burdens and enumerating his scars, after speaking of imprisonments and beatings, shipwrecks and nakedness, he adds one that surprises some people: the daily care of the Lord’s churches.
It’s every bit as burdensome as the others, believe me.
Most of us do one church at a time; Paul had them all on his heart.
A pastor can have 500 wonderful members who appreciate his efforts and who pray for him daily, but be worn to a nub by a few people with axes to grind but with neither scruples nor accountability.
A pastor friend at the end of his rope told me, “I feel like I’m being stoned to death with popcorn. I’m being eaten alive by a school of minnows.”
All those little nagging things that we laugh at have a way of accumulating, until eventually, they become more than you can bear.
This is from my journal some years back….