You often hear teachers say that they get into teaching for the kids. That if they could know that they had impacted the life of just one child, all their hard work, time, and effort would have paid off. Maybe you could say the same thing about ministers, although if that's why I got into ministry, it appears I'm going to be disappointed.
As I've mentioned before, I recently graduated from Bethel Seminary. The people of Riverview, unbeknownst to me, planned a rather lavish reception for me to celebrate my graduation. Also unbeknownst to me, several people gave me cards with congratulations and significant monetary gifts. One family passed along a card with personalized messages from both of their two children. The dad of the family told me that his son, while writing his message to me, asked his dad how to spell the word "believe." The dad felt his heart warm, as he imagined his son writing a message to the effect of "Thanks for helping me believe in Jesus, Pastor Joel." After the boy had finished his message the dad took a look at it and found this:
"Hi Joel. I can't believe you're going to be a pastor."
Needless to say, the parents put a word of explanation with the card so I wouldn't be too depressed. But when I think about it, I find myself agreeing: I can't believe I'm going to be a pastor either!
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