Who is indispensible?

One third of the way through a 3 month sabbatical and I feel as though I am still relearning how to relax and what is really important in life.  I can hardly remember how many years it has been since I took a two week full blown vacation.  This is really embarrassing!!!  How overly important do we view ourselves.  It is more than the world can bear to live without us for two consecutive weeks.  I am assuming that this must have been my thinking since I cannot remember taking a full two week vacation in over 30 years.  For the last 8 years I couldn't take two consecutive Sunday's off because of the church's need to hear me teach, or maybe it was my need to feel needed?  Do we have an overly inflated view of ourselves, and our personal importance?  I think maybe the answer is yes.

  Paul said in Rom. 12:3 nkj  For I say, through the grace given to me, to every man among you not to think to highly of himself than he ought but to think soberly as God has dealt to each man a measure of faith.


   None of us have it all.  None of us know it all, and none of us are indispensable.  Only Jesus Christ is indispensable but we all want to be needed.  Does this create a conflict within us?  Could this verse have been intended for today's pastors?  We don't think we are indispensable but we live like we are.  At least I did.  We live like that until we are worn down and burned out.  How often does your Pastor take a break?  Is vacation a dirty word?  How often do we actually take a Sabbath?   If we don't need a regular break then why does even God Himself take one during the creation week?  I don't know about you but I was living my life with very little margin.  Taking a 3 month sabbatical has helped me realize this because I am learning how to relax all over again.  I think that we all need a regular adjustment of our view of our place in this world.  He is God, not me.
    A few  years ago I began to notice that a lot of the really big names were developing multi-campus ministries.  You had to have more than one location.  The first ones were really time consuming.  Preach at your mega church in the morning on the east coast and then fly to New York or California to preach in the evening.  Hearing my voice is so critical for your success in life that I must spend hundred's of thousands in travel expenses and the cost of building a completely functional second church in another city.  One thing is clear when you read the book of Acts, and that is that the local church was local.  The Apostle Paul invested his life raising up Timothy's that he could assign to help the people of God in other cities.  I guess there just isn't anyone living in California or New York who could effectively lead and feed God's people, or is it just another case of us thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to.  I believe that it's time for God's people to ask "who is indispensable?"
     It's long overdue for all men of God to check their ego's at the door.  Only Jesus is indispensable.

Partner's for life...

I looked across the porch this morning and saw the tears in her eyes.  These past few years have been very hard on my sweet wife.  I didn't know that I was suffering from an undiagnosed battle with Parkinson's disease.   This was stealing my ability to think through problems and decisions clearly and decisively as I have most of my life.  She suffered through being the lone voice of both "somethings wrong" , and the need to protect me from criticism.  Meanwhile, I was floating off into some kind of mental fog that comes with this disease, and insisted on staying involved in what is clearly one of the most easily criticized professions you can work in...I was the Pastor of a local church. She was living in a no win situation.  It might have been easier if I had been involved in some moral failure because than she could have left me without being criticized.  In the Christian world women can never leave, they are just expected to suffer on in silence.  This has been the price that she has paid to be my partner and I am sorry she has paid it.  I have seen the pain in her eyes.  Apparently when she said till death do us part, she really meant it.