My Job is Frustrating!
We’ve launched into a series called, “A New Way to Work.” We’ll be talking about frustrating work this week. But of course, I don’t mean my job is frustrating. What’s there to be frustrated about as a pastor? My work week is all books that don’t talk back to me and walking around the neighborhood at a leisurely pace of prayer, right?
Actually, I think that’s how a lot of people think about the work of a pastor. I’ve been asked many times, often in genuinely curious ways, just what do you do for your job? I think I take on in a lot of ways the same work that all of us do: the work of trying to make what we have better not just for ourselves, but for everybody (shorter meetings for everyone!); the work of trying to prevent things in the world from getting worse than they already are (I’m a rinse & recycle gal); and, because I carry the image of God, I also do my best to be a restorer and a healer (though I wish pastoral counseling was for me what it is for Larry. Thank God he’s studying to be a counselor!).
Our schedules are all different, our emails don’t look the same, but because we’re still doing work like God originally gave us the work, I think we’re often about the same things.
And– let’s be honest– those tasks are so often filled with frustration. That’s what we’re talking about Sunday morning. (If you need to catch up, check out the new Podcast!
Allow me to offer us all a simple way to head into the next week’s anticipated frustrations with what will fill our days. It’ll only take a moment. Pause right now.
Name the 3 things you anticipate being the most frustrating this coming week.
Say out-loud, “God, you see how frustrating this will be, right?” Pause after each one. Let his spirit talk to your spirit saying, “Yes, my child. I see you.” (Romans 8:17)
Ask God, “How can I tackle that with you? Like you would? As if I were doing it for you?”
If you have time, write down anything you sense from God.
Put it somewhere you’ll see if Friday night. Thank God for meeting you in your [frustrating] work this week.
God is in all our work, Friends. He sees you. He knows you. And it is his way to let us go through what’s hard and, more often than not, to come to be with us in it rather than rescue us from it.
May your frustrating work feel more satisfying with Jesus this week.
Pastor Megan