It’s amazing the things we can get used to.
Like airplanes.
Everyday, tens of thousands of planes take off and land. All of them being guided by an Air Traffic Controller who calmly guides each plane to safety. That’s crazy… how nervous do you think they were the first time they did that job? I mean… hundreds of people’s lives are in their hands every minute of every day they work.
Yet… they get used to it. They probably slept fine the night before work… and they will probably sleep just fine tonight.
It’s not because the lives on those planes are any less important. It’s not because their job is any less important. Make no mistake about it… those lives are still in their hands.
They just get used to it.
Think of the surgeons who will stand over a patient today for the 1000th time.
Think of the pilot who holds the controls on takeoff and landing 4 or 6 times today.
Think of the counselor who let’s a hurting person leave their office and go back into the world again.
They all get used to it.
In a way… our ability to get used to big things is a curse and a gift.
I think it’s a gift in that God allows us to rest. I mean, in many ways, we could never live with the actual weight of our decisions if we REALLY faced them every day. If we didn’t get used to it, we’d never sleep!
It’s also a curse though. In the moment when you’re really feeling the weight of what you do… what you chose… what you say… where you feel like you are in over your head… where you feel completely dependent…
That’s the moment you are truly alive… really feeling… really present.
Do you remember the first time you were given the opportunity to share Christ?
Maybe you were given the microphone and asked to present the gospel…
Maybe you sat one-on-one with a kid who was asking the right questions with tears running down their face.
Maybe you were the person everybody in the room turned to when tragedy struck and nothing else makes sense.
Maybe the phone rang in the middle of the night, and you picked up.
Make no mistake about it… in that moment… that felt like a life or death moment. And… it was.
And then… somewhere along the line… after feeling that weight over and over again… you got used to it.
Here’s the thing. This season can be one of the worst times of the year for those of us who work in ministry.
Sundays are coming (Wednesdays and Christmas Eve services too!)
Programming needs to be figured out…
Decorations needs to be done well…
The food drive food needs delivered….
Next year’s budget needs to be finished…
2014 goals need to be written…
All of it is important… all of it, in our “business” is life or death.
My wish for you is that at some point… this very busy season… you would…
Stop…. listen…. and feel…
The weight of what you have been asked and been given the privilege to do.
We’ve been asked to intersect one of the most important, foundational, and pivotal times in a kids life… middle school… with Christ’s love.
And, though we do it everyday, and though we’ve grown used to it, my wish is that you would feel like you are getting to do that again…