1- When you carry the load, it is often associated with words like ‘responsibility’ and ‘dependability’. Whether at home, at work, or in social settings, carrying the load and being the person people look to for answers can be intimidating. Ministry carries with it the notion of being on call 24/7. If not physically, mentally the idea of working at all times can be there. It can wear on you if you do not get reprieve. In foster care, they call it ‘respite’; a weekend or week-long moment for someone else to come in and take care of the kids. Taking on 24/7 responsibility is to much to not get a break from. God knew this in creation. Even in a perfect creation, He set up a sabbath on the seventh day. Jesus knew we needed a break but opened the door for us to take a break as we need when He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) Taking a break is not just for the seventh day, but any day. Jesus was busy doing good on the Sabbath, so people asked Him about it. They did not know that His Sabbath was every day before sunrise. This opens the door and helps us to realize that we need to rest in God’s presence at any moment while taking on the 24/7 of ministry. How do we carry the load? We take breaks on purpose.
2- You could become an ant. Ants are amazing! They can carry 50 times their weight. If I were a 210 pound ant, I could carry over 10,000 pounds. But this is not the load I was talking about. Nor is becoming an ant an attainable life goal for any human but Ant Man himself. So let’s move on.
3- Get united. How does a piece of paper lift me, a 210 pound man, and inch off the ground? By working together. This piece of paper alone, I can crumble in my hand.
But, by being strategic and aligning itself (with the help of a designer) with a lot of other pieces of paper, it can hold me up.
How do you carry the load of ministry? Do you play your role? Do you have small group leaders to invest in smaller groups? Do you have go to speakers who can fill in when you need respite? Do you have other church leaders from other churches to help you influence the school with the gospel? You do not do it alone. Each one of those combs in the picture is a piece of paper, going back and forth, glued together in a pattern, to carry the weight. Ministry is the same way. There are to many students looking for the hope of Christ, both inside and outside your church, to try to manage ministry alone. You will crumble under the pressure like a single piece of paper under my weight. If you get together and get united around one purpose and work together, you can lift anything. You can rise above. You can move mountains. You can see the hope of Christ change a generation of students: from suicide to life; from cutting to healing; from bullying to serving; from drinking to filled with the Holy Spirit. Together, we can carry the load.
Peace,
Brad Schelling
