01/09/19 18:40
The last couple of weeks have brought an incredible amount of challenges within the parish and outside of the parish with people struggling with health issues. It seems that neither the young or the old are exempt from these challenges. To be honest, it has been a struggle for me personally to remain focused when day after day you hear about people encountering sadness and pain. There is always the challenge as a minister to not internalize these struggles and take them into ourselves. But when you go day after day without any good news, it is hard to not internalize the pain and sadness of the people in your ministry.
It is a stark reminder to me that as a minister it is essential that we take care of our own spiritual house. It’s so easy to internalize the struggles and then simply go home and have no energy left for exercise, for eating correctly, for family, and most importantly for personal prayer. All of those things are necessary to escape what can become a very difficult and stressful situation.