Friday, January 4, 2008

Taking It Home

Many folks have trouble taking their work home with them. Not trouble doing it, but trouble not doing it! The result is often that family and home life suffers for the sake of job, money, or advancement. It seems to me that if anything should be true, this should be the other way around. We do not realize how important our vocations as fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, really are.

Yet I have found as a pastor, I am particularly afflicted with this problem. The sadnesses of the ministry and my own failures follow me home. I have trouble turning off my mind and focusing on my family, as sermon writing, questions, issues, and concerns keep filling and turning over in my mind. I do not willingly bring these home with me, but they follow, unwanted. And so I find myself not being the father and husband I want to be for my family.

Pastors are always on call. I can handle that. The hours I work, the evening and weekend schedules, I have some say in. That’s the physical part, and perhaps for me, the easiest part. But the emotional and mental stress of the ministry I found not so easy to deal with. I may have to share in the suffering of my flock, but my family shouldn’t have to. Perhaps realizing it is half the battle.

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