…there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:28).
Pastoring God’s people can be exhausting.
Even when you do your best to serve God by ministering to His people, some are not going to give you the benefit of the doubt on anything nor forgive you for not living up to their impossible expectations.
You didn’t do it their way, weren’t there when they called, didn’t jump at their bark. They don’t like the way you comb your hair, your wife did not speak to them in the grocery, your children are just too perfect.
Such members are the exceptions, true. I say that to those who wonder why we overlook the 98 percent of healthy members and focus on the two percent who drive us batty. It’s the two percent of drivers who are the crazies on the highways and ruin the experience for everyone else. It’s the two percent of society who require us to maintain a standing police force to protect the citizenry. Rat poison, they say, is 98 percent corn meal. But that two percent will kill you.
I confess it as unworthy of a child of God that I remember these difficult moments with God’s headstrong people more than the precious times with the saints. Perhaps it’s because the strained connections and harsh words feed into my own insecurities. Or maybe it’s because there are so many more of the blessed times.
Even so, here are two instances from my pastoring journal that stand out…