Merry Christmas....Pastor

​I talk to Pastors.

Let me share something with you.

Many of them are tired, really tired.  

Not the kind of tired that a day of rest or a down weekend with no preaching responsibilities will remedy. They are bone aching, mind numbing, dark soul of the night exhausted. 

How did they arrive at this threat level midnight echelon of fatigue? Truthfully, it’s not just one thing, it’s a compilation of a lot of things, little things and perhaps a few big things too.

Why are the Shepherds tired?

• Demanding ministry schedules
• The close of a church budget season with more expenses than resources
• A wife who is tired (of ministry, being pregnant, battling sickness, managing the children alone, the critical whispers of the naysayers in the congregation, of not having enough money to meet expenses or purchase Christmas gifts or travel home to see family) 
• Conflict among church leaders (staff, deacons, trustees, finance committees, elders)
• Because the church down the street looks like it has it all together, at least on their socials and his church feels like a mess
• The internal nagging sense that what they are doing, at least how they are going about it, isn’t what they actually thought ministry would be about.

There could be more…there probably is.

Let’s add in Christmas and all that comes with it.

• Multiple services
• Music programs
• Christmas parties
• Family pressure

Seems that the ones who are there to remind the flock of the “good news of great joy” struggle to believe what they might be saying….or at least only feel like they can ascent to its truth mentally, certainly not emotionally and perhaps not spiritually. 

Dear Pastor, remember this….  

The silence from the close of the Old Testament gave way because of a slow trickle of good news that may not have seemed like good news at all.

• A betrothal interrupted by an unplanned, unforeseen and miraculous pregnancy.
• The wrestling of a noble man who considered the putting away of the woman he was to marry - interrupted by a divine assurance, God was in this.
• The whispers of the town residents as a pregnancy began to show-they could do math and it wasn’t all adding up, or was it?
• A difficult journey demanded by a civil magistrate with no exception clause for travel - and all to be counted for tax purposes.
• A crowded city and no room for a wife to bear her firstborn.

This is the first Christmas, this is also your Christmas.

Perhaps our Pastors and their families struggle in this season so they can experience all the emotions which were experienced at the first Christmas. So they can know that in the uncertainty, chaos, pain, disappointment and feelings of loneliness and rejection, God is still working.

So they truly understand….

“Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11

Fear not Brother Pastor, Christmas is about the good news of a baby born unto us, about the  breaking the grip of sin, the power of darkness and the certainty of redemption.

Rest in that, be refreshed.

Merry Christmas.
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