Same faces, different day. No matter where you minister – at the food pantry, soup kitchen, juvenile detention or drug and alcohol intervention, you see the same faces over and over. It’s like a revolving door.
Sometimes you may wonder if you are making a difference at all in these people’s lives. You seldom see a success story, a time when they had an “Aha!” moment and had a transformation in their lives. Instead, it seems their focus is getting through the day, only to repeat the cycle again tomorrow.
When Emotions Get Involved
If you have been serving in ministry, you may experience a multitude of emotions from this seemingly routine process. For those who are new to ministry, expect to have these feelings/thoughts at some point.
- Discouragement and frustration – “Why has the system let them down?” “Why can’t I do more to help?”
- Loss of empathy and compassion – “They won’t try to do any better.” “If they don’t care, then why should I?”
- Discontent – “God must want me to work somewhere else.” “My talents are being wasted here. I can be more effective in another ministry.”
Don’t be surprised to have these thoughts and feelings at some point in your ministry. Just don’t let them change your view of ministry or how you respond to those God has put in your path.
“You Did It For Me”
How can you deal with the discouragement and discontent that will probably come your way at least once in your ministry? Jesus provides the answer in Matthew 25. He tells the people that every time they fed the hungry, clothed those who were without clothing, cared for the sick or visited those in prison, they did it for Him.
That attitude is what we are to have in ministry. Every time you see a lonely, hopeless face in front of you, imagine that it is Jesus that you are caring for. He is the one standing in line at the soup kitchen or lying sick in a bed.
What this passage tells us is that we are not to be focused on the end results of our ministry. After all, we really don’t know what they are. Sometimes what you do for someone today will make a difference down the road. And, sometimes it won’t. The focus instead should be on serving Jesus wherever you are.
Ministry is not only about changing the lives of those around you. It is about changing your life. If you serve as if you were ministering to Jesus, your life will be the one that changes. Your perspective on people will change. After all, they were made in God’s image – every broken one of them.
How would your attitude in ministry change if you saw Jesus in every person you worked with? What would you do or say differently if Jesus were the one before you?
