You Need Him and You Need Others
“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” - John 5:30
A pastor who happened to be a single father attended a much-needed pastor’s retreat. And during the question & answer period, he raised his hand to ask the facilitator about a struggle he was having.
He said before the group, “I feel like a failure as a father. My wife is deceased, and the demands of ministry keep me away from my twelve-year-old son. His teacher at school told me his grades were impacted by his mother’s death, and I needed to spend more time with him. So, I planned an evening with my boy. When school was over, I had already prepared his favorite meal, and we were about to sit down to eat when the phone rang.
It was the chairman of our deacons. His wife had just had a stroke, and I needed to meet them at the hospital. Before I could apologize to my son, the phone rang again. It was the wife of a young couple whom I had just married, and she was in tears, screaming that her husband was leaving; he was on his way out the door. I looked at my son and apologized to him sorely, and then proceeded to head to the hospital to be with the deacon and his wife, then rushed over to the home of that couple.
When I got home it was after midnight, and when I walked into my room, there was my son, asleep on my bed with his head on my pillow. When I pulled off his shoes and was about to pull the covers up over him, I was struck to see the pillow was soaked with his tears.”
The facilitator calmly replied to the man by saying, “Sir, you’re not failing as a father, you’re failing as a pastor! Because if you are the only person in your ministry who can go and help these people, you will soon burn out and be good to no one.”
Can you relate? John 5:30 is a good reminder, “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” We cannot do it all alone. We need God and we need others. Who do you seek help from? If the answer is “no one,” you may want to get help before you HAVE to get help.
A pastor who happened to be a single father attended a much-needed pastor’s retreat. And during the question & answer period, he raised his hand to ask the facilitator about a struggle he was having.
He said before the group, “I feel like a failure as a father. My wife is deceased, and the demands of ministry keep me away from my twelve-year-old son. His teacher at school told me his grades were impacted by his mother’s death, and I needed to spend more time with him. So, I planned an evening with my boy. When school was over, I had already prepared his favorite meal, and we were about to sit down to eat when the phone rang.
It was the chairman of our deacons. His wife had just had a stroke, and I needed to meet them at the hospital. Before I could apologize to my son, the phone rang again. It was the wife of a young couple whom I had just married, and she was in tears, screaming that her husband was leaving; he was on his way out the door. I looked at my son and apologized to him sorely, and then proceeded to head to the hospital to be with the deacon and his wife, then rushed over to the home of that couple.
When I got home it was after midnight, and when I walked into my room, there was my son, asleep on my bed with his head on my pillow. When I pulled off his shoes and was about to pull the covers up over him, I was struck to see the pillow was soaked with his tears.”
The facilitator calmly replied to the man by saying, “Sir, you’re not failing as a father, you’re failing as a pastor! Because if you are the only person in your ministry who can go and help these people, you will soon burn out and be good to no one.”
Can you relate? John 5:30 is a good reminder, “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” We cannot do it all alone. We need God and we need others. Who do you seek help from? If the answer is “no one,” you may want to get help before you HAVE to get help.
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