Some pastors get high on people; others are totally absorbed in
getting things done; a few respond to needs before they occur and
are so far ahead they have planned the funeral service for the child
they have just dedicated. Now not all of us are spiritual Ferraris
but we do tend to measure our value to our people by how much we get
done. We may even get some mild pleasure when others make the “I
know you are very busy….” speech.

As we all know well, leadership is not a nine to five enterprise.
It never has been. It does not matter if you have a small or large
congregation, there is always something more to do. The day is
never long enough. Some of us cope with this better than others.
We sleep well no matter how many loose ends there may be.

Others of us live in a state of perpetual panic having basically
excised from our Bibles all references to “entering into Lord’s
rest” (whatever that may mean). Anyway, those bits are clearly for
the non serious, the spiritual lay abouts who would not know what a
hard day’s work looked like.

The Benefits of the Fast Lane

But we need to check our rear vision mirror before we start slowing
down. Such an alteration to our daily routine could lead to some
worrying consequences. There are some very real benefits of keeping
on the go. For example:

* We will never be really distracted from our commitment to
ministry by our own inner contradictions, rough edges and
unspoken hungers for a deeper experience of the “otherness”
of God. We simply do not have the time to get into all of that.
Besides, it is a touch introspective and only for those
reflective types.

* We will continue to derive satisfaction from the endless round
of redefining our priorities without having to realise that these
may not be entirely in keeping with what the Lord requires of us
anyway. It will not enter our heads that we just may be in the
wrong ball park altogether. Now that discovery would be truly
unsettling and throw us into a tail spin. The courage to
acknowledge that we may be misguided is a rare commodity.

* We will be saved the hassle of “waiting on God,” a term much
loved by the truly spiritual. Now this is a terrific biblical
concept but it comes from the pre mobile phone, computer,
e-mail, and fax era. Besides, people who insist on waiting upon
God when there is much to be done need to discover what the
responsible stewardship of time is all about.

* We will continue to err on the side of hard work for the Kingdom
with our unbroken labours carrying a rather more tangible bonus
than those constant withdrawals for prayer undertaken by the
well motivated, the mystical and delightfully impractical.

Finding a New Structure

To lose the capacity for quietness is a risky business. The
discipline of slowing down is hard at the best of times for most of
us. The creation of room for personal retreat requires a conscious
decision. It takes effort, planning and the deliberate setting
aside of those very worthwhile causes which so frequently and
subtly seduce us. Most of us need a clear structure in our
routines if we are to function well.

The giving of a priority to silence, to genuinely listen to God,
demands a reorganisation of that structure and a questioning of the
whole edifice of good works which we unconsciously build from a
sincere heart. It is not just a better use of the diary,
commendable as that may be. It is a revisiting of the underlying
order of our lives and what causes us to operate in the way we do.

It has so much to do with how we see ourselves before God and our
understanding of what He requires of us in our daily round. Now
this depth of enquiry is demanding and unsettling. Pursued
consistently it will begin to call into question much of what we
may have seen to be our priorities.

But to think that being quiet is just another thing that we should
be doing since we are in leadership and want to be open to God is to
miss the point entirely. Being alone with God is not simply an add
on, an optional extra which we somehow accommodate in an already
full life. It is indeed a fresh way of ordering our lives, a new
way of being.

It is an overt departure from the fast lane. It is an exiting from
the spiritual freeway of doing great things for God to another road
where the pace and direction are not so clear. Our problem is
finding the off ramp at high speed. It is not easy. Further, we
can find that off ramp only through careful observation and deep
desire. It is not clearly marked by an “Exit” sign.

Moses and That Rock

There is the appalling possibility that the good works which we feel
we have been called to do may, in the end, be the very barriers
which inhibit or prevent a rich and deep fellowship with the Lord.
The appropriate balance is that which enables us to find Him in the
rough and tumble of service, at the very heart of it all. Too often
though this same rough and tumble effectively frustrates the
calming, energising movement of the Spirit.

We can all understand why Moses whacked the rock. When we are
surrounded by a sufficient number of critics and otherwise
difficult people, we can lose our cool very easily too. But the
only way to respond obediently under pressure is to hold on to the
reality of His Presence and His provision.

There is an enormous problem in crowding out the Presence of God.
When we start to lose the plot, our reactions give us away. We may
long for a complete withdrawal, or failing that, we become
unconsciously abrupt and short with people. We look for sanctified
ways of targeting the jugular. A barely controlled frustration
leads to irritation, a feeling of something being constantly wrong
but not having the capacity to identify what the problem is.

Not too far away is the potentially paralysing growth of
unreflected doubt not to mention a loss of direction and purpose.
We start to see the inconsistencies in the lives of others and are
only ever a short step away from being perennially judgmental of
them. It is like being on a diet of pure prune juice. We become
allergic to the very people we are called to serve.

The truth is that even the most disciplined of us can be strangers
to regular silence and quietness. Many of us have a unique ability
to fill up every moment. We do it for the best of reasons, of
course: it arises from our devotion to the Lord and His people.
What we fail to realise is the cost of being on the run, of never
taking the time to pull over.

It is not just the matter of a muddled spirituality. There are
profound implications as far as effectiveness and health are
concerned. One study found that people who work over fifty hours
weekly suffer a productivity drop of fifty per cent. Higher times
on the job lead to even less productivity. Also, there is a much
higher risk of stress with job dissatisfaction leading to heart
disease. Pastors ignore these findings at their peril.

The High Cost of High Speed

We simply cannot be there for others if we stay in the fast lane all the
time. There comes a point when we wilt at the possibility of bumping into Mrs
Jones at the supermarket, or having to face yet another phone call from Mr Brown
whose marriage is going down the tube. Instead of a regular retreat helping us
to keep a perspective, we want to become reclusive and this has a very different
motivation.

One is a deliberate decision to ponder where we are on the journey; the other
is a desperate escape device which is doomed to failure. Surprisingly, we are
often blind to the value of hauling into the pits for a check over and tune up.

Perhaps the most expensive mistake is to launch into a day without taking the
time to receive it from God as His most recent gift to us. We can be like the
impatient child in the toy shop: we grab it and run. It is no wonder then that
priorities are scrambled, little is achieved and we lack the poise to handle the
inevitable interruptions which are all part of ministry. We see the day for what
we want to do with it without ever considering that it is His for Him to do what
He would through us. It is a rather different equation and is not understood
easily.

The intersection between our designs and His do not necessarily fall into
place in ways which we can identify quickly. But that is the walk of faith. We
spend time with Him in whatever way has meaning for us and then take a shot at
the day without the intention of bringing in the Kingdom by lunch time. If the
day is filled with joy or disaster at least it was His since we returned to Him
right at the first jump. And, furthermore, if our schemes were dismembered along
the way, so be it. There is a liberation here, a departure from the heaviness of
trying to do everything for God. If, having sought His blessing for the day, not
much seemed to be accomplished, then that is His problem too.

May we have the bravery to find ways to live ever more closely to this God
Who loves us and gave Himself for us. His is not a call to self destruction,
ineffective living and damaged health. It is a call to fullness, to trust, to
believe that our part is just that: a tiny piece in His grand plan for His world.
But you won’t find it in high gear. Keep an eye open for the off ramp. It is
around here somewhere.

– John Simpson <>