Taking Up Your Cross
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
Most of the time, I write about the love of God, to encourage and give hope in Jesus, and to help promote growth in a relationship with Jesus. But today, this will give insight to another group of people—those called into ministry.
Don’t get me wrong, we are all called to serve in some capacity in the Kingdom of God; but in addition to this serving, there are those that have been called to preach and teach the good news of Jesus. These callings are walked out in serving as pastors (wives and family), by teaching Sunday School, working with youth, children, young adults, etc.
As a young lady marrying a minister at the ripe ole age of nineteen, ministry tended to be “glamorized” when seeing traveling evangelists and watching pastoring from the sidelines. It looked exciting and appeared that it was a “living on the mountain top” kind of life. But after entering this journey myself, it didn’t take very long before I realized that it really wasn’t the case.
““Everyone wants to be in ministry, in the limelight on a platform preaching; but real ministry is being in the emergency room with a family that is faced with a hopeless situation. ”
In the beginning years of our ministry, there was night upon night of preaching and singing, inviting people to accept Jesus. Then, our ministry shifted into a serving/laboring season that was a temporary assignment to fulfill vision at our campground. It was also a time where we grew in our relationship with Jesus. During these phases, we saw many lives changed as they accepted Jesus as their Lord and it made living out of a suitcase well worth it.
In 2000, we began pastoring. This stage of our journey took on an entirely different life. We didn’t move from revival to revival but were planted in one place to help lead people to Jesus and grow in discipleship.
My brother made a statement to me that provoked this thought for today. He said, “Everyone wants to be in ministry, in the limelight on a platform preaching; but real ministry is being in the emergency room with a family that is faced with a hopeless situation. This is where the rubber meets the road.”
I began to think about the past week and a half in our own lives. We have celebrated birthdays, prayed for the sick, grieved with the loss of loved ones, and danced at a wedding.
In our ministry, we have watched babies born and grow to adulthood. We have walked with parents through the joys and heartaches because of the choices their children have made. We have cried and prayed with men and women who suddenly found themselves faced with divorce and the devastation it brings.
We have cried with those grieving over the death of a loved one wanting to give hope in those dark moments. We have witnessed countless lives accept Jesus, grow in discipleship, baptisms, healings, deliverances, calls to ministry and then sending them forth to walk out their callings.
And yes, we have been criticized, ridiculed, betrayed, falsely accused, and deserted. You see, ministry is hard. It is a life of denying yourself, taking up the cross of Christ and following Jesus wherever He leads.
Why does your pastor, your youth/children’s pastor, worship pastor and teachers do this? Because people matter. People matter. We know that we are in the people business to help and serve. We know that hurting people hurt people.
You may ask the question to your ministers, “Is it worth it?” And quite honestly, yes, yes it is worth it when you walk into a hospital room or a funeral home, and you can see on their faces how much it means to them that you would come to be there in the good times and the really hard times.
In the past months, two questions have crossed my mind several times. “Would you do it again? Would you choose to walk through this journey of ministry again?” The answer is Yes – a thousand times yes. You see at the end of the day, I know, that Jesus knows, we love and serve, we minister the best that we know how because Jesus continues to love and extend His grace to us every single day. How can we not?
In the days ahead, as you sit in your youth groups, take your kids to children’s church, practice with your worship pastor, sit in your congregation listening to the sermon watching their families serve too, pray for your pastors(their families) and your teachers; and then let them know how much you appreciate all they do to fulfill the calling of God on their life. You can’t imagine how much that will encourage and mean to them.
Jesus taught the disciples that their worth to God was more than the sparrows – and Jesus said that God does not forget the sparrow. Jesus then went on to say that God knows the number of hairs on each head.