Hidden Hardships
At a pastors’ gathering this week, a young man serving as an elder at a nearby church shared that he would likely be headed across the globe to Brisbane, Australia to pastor a church that is in need of revitalization. He knew a little about my decade-plus as a pastor at TTBC and a few of the challenges it has been to seek biblical change in a local congregation.
One thing I mentioned to him is that there would be hardship. Indeed, there is fair share of hardship in the Christian life, generally. But the pages of the New Testament affirm that a life devoted to local church ministry adds suffering to hardship. This shouldn’t make pastors arrogant, but instead keenly aware of our need of grace. Of course there is great joy in serving Jesus in the ministry, but that’s for another post!
As my friend articulated his own sense of mild unease at taking on a church in need of revitalization in an unfamiliar context, a certain Cormac McCarthy quote came to mind from one of my favorite of his novels, titled All the Pretty Horses. “He said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they’d have no heart to start at all.” I find this to be true not just of pastoring, but of life in general. We know that God is sovereign, all-wise, and that he is kind to his people. And so, we are reminded of his wisdom and kindness to each of us, especially as we set out on a great endeavor, to shield us from much of the thorny parts up ahead. To ponder them all at once—that would be cut to the quick. We would be haunted by the specific, future tribulations if they were revealed to us all at once. Instead, God gives us hardships on a daily drip and we aren’t permitted to see the future, according to God’s wise design.
I was left pondering Jesus’ word on anxiety in Matthew 6 where he rounds out the discourse with this line, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Sure, things are hard. That’s an axiom for life in a fallen world. It’s just what it is. And yet, God is wisely governing our knowledge of hard stuff. We know that whatever suffering we face whether in ministry specifically, or otherwise, it leads to glory and fellowship with God and the Redeemed. May we praise God for hidden hardships.
