Dear Friend,
Jerry Kirk, a pastor friend in a former denomination, told how he had
come home after a busy day at church, the kind of day that when your wife meets
you at the door, you ask, “Honey, tell me the names of our kids once again.”
Jerry had longed for a quiet evening at home where he could sit back in his
easy chair, read the paper, and maybe catch a favorite television program. But
then it happened. As he was just settling down, the phone rang. His wife picked
up the phone and after a few minutes she hung up the phone and relayed the
message to her husband who was comfortably ensconced in his favorite chair. She
said to him “One of your members is in the hospital, and he wants to see a
pastor.” With that Jerry let out a loud groan, the kind that communicated the
thought, “Do I have to go, Lord?” His wife turned to him and said, “Honey,
what’s the matter? Don’t you love your people?” And with that Jerry responded,
“Yes, but I just don’t want to love so many so fast.”
Did you ever feel that way? I know I have and the times are
probably too many to count. I particularly remember one of those situations
when I, like Jerry, was resting at home one night after dinner and I got one of
those calls. It too, was a hospital call, and I rationalized that it could
certainly wait until the next morning. But then it happened. I got the Holy Spirit
nudge that quickly reminded me where I needed to be, and it was not at home. So
begrudgingly I went with anything but the best intentions. And guess what? I
not only got to see the patient I intended to visit, but I also was able to
visit another member who was also in the same hospital. After returning home, I
remember feeling that I was no longer tired, but I was filled with a
renewed sense of energy.
It often happens that way doesn’t it? But like myself we
sometimes need to be reminded that the Holy Spirit is not only our spiritual
energizer, but He is our physical energizer as well.
In James we read, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do
and doesn’t do it, sins” (James 3:17). I thought to myself I am all too
familiar with the sins of commission, but what about the sins of omission?
Would I have sinned had I decided not to have made that hospital visit? I don’t
know, but I think the verse indicates that was a possibility. And
then I thought of Gal 6:9-10, where Paul writes, “Let us not become weary in
doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to
those who belong to the family of believers.” Maybe James was not talking about
some future reward, but maybe the reward was right now. Maybe the reaping began
the moment I first decided in my heart to make that hospital visit.
Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest, asks, “Have
you delivered yourself over to exhaustion because of the way you have been
serving God? If so, then renew and rekindle your desires and affections.
Examine your reasons for service. Is your source based on your own
understanding or it is grounded on the redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually
look back to the foundation of your love and affection and remember where your source
of power lies. You have no right to complain, ‘O Lord I am so exhausted.’ He
saved and sanctified you to exhaust you. Be exhausted for God, but remember
that He is your supply. ‘All my springs are in you’” (Psalm 87:7).
Do you have something the Lord has been wanting you to do that you have been putting because you knew it could easily to do it “tomorrow?” Go, and do it now, and never be 'weary in doing good,' for who knows, the Lord might just bless you right in the “now” in ways that you had never imagined.
Yours in faith,
Tom
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