Jump Start # 1748

Galatians 6:9 “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”

  Keep doing good. That’s what this very verse is telling us. It comes before the great plea, “as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people…” Keep doing good. Don’t stop. Don’t get tired. Don’t get discouraged. Paul seems like a cheerleader on the sidelines trying to keep our spirits up. He is reminding us of the good that is being accomplished. The battle isn’t over yet. Keep at it, boys!

All of this makes perfect sense until you have to try to convince someone who has grown weary. He is losing heart. He’s there. He’s tired. He was a preacher who sat in my office recently. We talked. He’s talented and has done good with the churches he has worked with. He has a good reputation and is a hard worker. He’s a pace setter for most of us preachers. But now, he was losing heart. He was weary. He was where the apostle said don’t go there. He talked about quitting.

This was a difficult discussion for me. I’ve advised many young preachers. This one was my age. This one knew the Bible. This one hadn’t been lazy. He has done more than most of us ever will. I wondered what brought this on? Why? Trouble at home? Trouble with the folks at the church? Not seeing eye to eye with the shepherds? Time to think about moving? We raced through all of those topics. Nothing. He was simply tired. He didn’t want to move. That meant still doing what he was doing. He was tired of preaching. He was noticing men his age retiring. He couldn’t. I think that bothered him. The newly retired people were traveling. He couldn’t. They were staying home and watching movies. He couldn’t. He had preaching to do. I suggested a vacation. Get away for awhile. That didn’t seem to be the right answer either. Even while on vacation, he reminded me, the preacher must be thinking about sermons to preach when he got home. His work was becoming a ball and chain to him. I reminded him that if he wasn’t careful, he would begin to dread preaching. It would effect his ability. It would show.

This soldier of the cross was tired. What do you tell a tired preacher? How do you encourage an encourager? What do you say to someone who has been doing good for so long and seemingly has many more years left in him? Is he washed up? Did he burn out? Is it good for him to quit? All these things were racing through my mind. He came to me. He wanted my help. What would I say? I prayed to myself. I thought as he talked. I listened. I looked into those tired eyes. It is funny, I had always figured that it would be he that would advise me, not the other way around.

Two things came to my mind.

I took him to Jesus. I reminded him of the great work that the Lord had done. I showed him my “yellow folder.” It’s a collection of emails, cards and letters through the years that were written to me because of things I had done or said to others. We read a few of them. A mother thanked me for the words of comfort at her daughter’s funeral that I had preached. A young couple thanked me for doing their wedding. Emails from the Jump Start readers. A thank you here. A ‘you made a difference in my life’ there. A ‘That helped me.’ ‘That answered a question I had.’ I told him when I first started preaching I started collecting and saving those kinds of responses. Often I just stuck them in my “Yellow folder,” which is in the bottom of one of the file cabinets. I rarely re-read these, except when I’m wondering if I am doing any good. I told him that all of us that are doing God’s work have a folder, I just happen to have an actual one. There are people sprinkled all over the country that has been touched, taught, changed and helped by the preaching done by that man. He thought for a moment. He wiped his eyes, as tears started to fall. He apologized for being so much trouble to me. It seems that he had forgotten the good that he had done.

The second thing I did was show him a picture I have that hangs on the wall. It’s called, “Legacy.” It’s a print of a preacher. He’s wearing a cool looking tie. Standing behind him, off both shoulders, in a shadowy, less obvious image, are what appears to be ancient preachers. Maybe apostles. Maybe prophets. They stand shoulder to shoulder with the preacher. One even has his hand on the preacher’s shoulder. The idea is very clear. The preacher in the print was carrying on the legacy of teaching God’s word to a new generation. Just as those old prophets, standing behind him and with him had done, so is he doing. People are counting on that preacher to carry on with the teaching of God’s word. People needed him to sound forth God’s word. We looked at that picture. I asked him to go back a few generations and put names to those faces. Men who had worn themselves out preaching God’s word. Names like Robert Jackson, David Lipscomb, McGarvey, J.C. Roady, all the way back to some of the earliest preachers in this country. We laughed at how the times had changed. Can you imagine, we said, some of those old guys, using powerpoint, Facebook, and Twitter? We wondered what the apostle Paul would have thought about ear piece microphones and live streaming? We talked about our early days of preaching, back before most of us had computers. We talked about overhead projectors and how we thought that was the coolest thing ever invented. Look where we are today. He got it. He realized that he was continuing the legacy that was started with the Lord. The torch has been passed to us. What would happen if we dropped that torch? What would have happened had someone upstream dropped it years ago? It’s been handed to us.

I reminded him of that wonderful promise in Revelation where the righteous will rest from their labors. He was working hard and someday he would enjoy a sweet rest with the Lord.

Weariness from labor is something that is rarely looked at. We spend so much time trying to get people busy, that we forget about those that are laboring so hard. Day in and day out, preaching, teaching, helping others. The weary heart can lead to some dark places. Elijah felt that way. He thought he was the only one doing right. He was ready for the Lord to take him. God wasn’t feeling that way. He told Elijah to get out of the cave and go appoint someone king. God reminded Elijah that there were thousands who had not bowed their knees to Baal.

Sometimes we over burden ourselves. We take on more than we can handle. Some times instead of passing work on to others, we just do it ourselves. I’m that way to a fault. I want things to be just right. It’s just easier for me to do it than it is to show someone else. But in doing that, the work adds up. More and more.

God bless the tired workers who are doing so much. There are many work horses out there who are laboring so hard for the Lord. They’ll never stop until the Lord stops them. They see others their age and even younger, who retire and do not have to worry about money. They travel and for a moment, these hard working preachers feel a bit jealous. It can take their breath away. But back to the fields they return. There is more to be done before this day is over.

I must confess that this preacher that came to my office was me. This conversation took place in my mind. I was the one who felt so weary that I just wanted to quit. I am better. I talked to myself and told myself the very things that I shared with you. I think more needs to be looked at from the standpoint of the weary worker. It’s hard to explain, but I doubt that I’m the only one who has been there.

I share this to both be honest and hopefully to help others who are there. Catch your breath weary soldiers, and get back into the game. God needs you and we need you.

Thank you,

Roger