“After a very long engagement, it had finally happened. I was a priest in Christ’s Church. Even now, I would prefer a more user friendly word like pastor, but the truth is that an ancient word like priest captures the risk of this vocation as well as any word I know. In my lexicon, at least, a priest is someone willing to stand between a God and a people who are longing for one another’s love, turning back and forth between them with no hope of tending either as well as each deserves. To be a priest is to serve a God who never stops calling people to do more justice and love more mercy and simultaneously to serve people who nine times out of ten are just looking for a safe place to rest. To be a priest is to know that things are not as they should be and yet to care for them the way they are. To be a priest is to suspect that there is always something more urgent that you should be doing, no matter what you are doing, and to make peace with the fact that the work will never get done. To be a priest is to wonder sometimes if you are missing the boat altogether, by deferring pleasure in what God has made until you have fixed it up so that it will please God more. …being ordained is not about serving God perfectly but about serving God visibly, allowing other people to learn whatever they can from watching you rise and fall.” Barbara Brown Taylor
“You are royal priests,
a holy nation….”
1 Peter 2:9
Moving From the Head to the Heart
Every member of Christ’s church is a priest. Whether you are a professional or amateur, God’s expectations are daunting.
- Can you stand between God and people and help connect them love?
- Can you call people to a higher place who often don’t want to go there?
- Can you love things as they are, not as they’re supposed to be?
- Can you accept that no matter what you do, the work will never be done?
- Can you be open enough to let others learn from “watching you rise and fall?”
Abba, strengthen me and every one of us who labor in your holy, royal service.
For More: Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor
These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others! My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest! – Bill
“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”
Richer By Far 
And what if the answer to those questions is “no”? Or, “not just now”?
LikeLike
Then maybe just try to be quiet and still, at present to God as you can be, and ask him to show you what you can do just now.
LikeLike