Crazy Days and Feeling Distant from God

Yesterday was one of those crazy busy days. One of those days where I was busy from the time I got up in the morning to the time I went to bed. Our normal time to get up during the week is 4:45 for my wife and about 5:15 for me. Yesterday had me out of bed by 5 (although I had been awake since 3 which is another story for another day) and we were out the door by 6 which is a half hour early. 

We stopped at Panera for breakfast and after dropping my wife off at work I headed downtown to help my sister-in-law set up for her upcoming art show. It is a very big show at the Merchandise Mart called One Of A Kind and features incredible hand made art. My sister-in-law takes old windows, doors and furniture and turns them into pieces of art. Some of my favorite things of hers are old maps that she takes and mounts behind old windows. Right now she has an old 1944 Army Corps of Engineers map of France and a 1959 map of New York City that are both really nice.

After setting up the show I had to head back home to pick up my wife and head to the dentist. After we finished with the dentist we decided to stop to get dinner. By this time it was getting pretty late and we had nothing in the house except Thanksgiving leftovers that are getting a bit long in the tooth. When we finally got home it was almost time for bed.

I share this because it is days like yesterday that cause me to think of the following video:

It can be so easy to feel distant from God. While Dr. Powlison's advice is initially aimed at how to counsel a person asking about feeling distant from God, the video is worth watching for everyone. He asks some very simple questions that can help get at the nature of why we might be feeling distant from God.

The first question he looks at is what God are we feeling distant from? It is a great question in that we can often have an image of God in our head that is quite inaccurate. He then goes on to talk about how things happening to us or things that we do can cause us to feel distant from God. We live in a fallen world that is quite broken. Part of that brokenness can be seen in the sin that we commit and part of that brokenness can be seen in the suffering that we endure. Both of these things can feed into our feeling distant from God.

In a day like the one that I had yesterday it can be very easy for me to not take the time that I need to take in order to feel close to God. It is not that God has moved away from me but rather that I have moved away from him.

Fortunately we have a God that is seeking us out when we are lost and is eagerly awaiting our return to him. We have a God that desires to have a relationship with us and to be close to us. 

Source CCEF via Justin Taylor

Demanding a Day Off

Whether or not a pastor should be given a day off was the topic of an article by Brian Croft that I came across via Tim Challies. The timing of coming across the article is interesting in light of my recent post on the Sabbath and a conversation that my Senior Pastor and I were just having. In the article Pastor Croft gives three reasons that a pastor should take a regular day off every week.

The first is because "Sunday is a work day for a pastor." Croft goes on to point out that while Sunday is a day of relaxation for most people, it is a work day for the pastor. My pastor and I had a conversation in the past week on how draining Sunday can be. My experience is that I have exerted more mental and emotional energy on the days that I preach than I exerted in any single day of working in the business world. I am not saying this to deny how difficult and stressful working in the business world can be (it can be far more stressful than I ever experienced in my 4 years of finance company work and 10 years of retail management) but rather I say this simply to dispel any notions that Sunday is an easy work day for pastors.

The second reason that Pastor Croft gives is that "a pastor never really leaves work."

"Regardless how we spend our evenings or how hard we try, the pastor never completely checks out...there just is not a clock we ever punch that magically causes us to forget about the burdens of caring for souls until 9:00 am the next morning."

Even in social settings most of our church members call our pastor by the title "Pastor." It is a sign of respect for him as well as for his office. But it is also a subtle reminder of his work and that he is always on the clock. He might not be actively functioning as a pastor at that time but someone is always watching and evaluating him as a pastor.

In the same way, the elders at our church have decided that our pastor does not need to preach on the Sunday immediately following a vacation. In the past our pastor would get back from vacation on Friday or Saturday and have to preach the following Sunday. This meant that during his time off he wasn't actually off. Even if the sermon was already written he was still spending part of his time off preparing for work.

The third reason that Pastor Croft gives is that "a pastor needs a weekly day where his family comes first and they know it." One of the qualifications of an Elder is that "He must manage his own household well." This is impossible if the pastor is not allowed to take time to be with his family.

I think that we as a church should not just allow our pastors to take days off but rather that we should demand that they do so. The elders should keep the pastor accountable for both taking a day off as well as using it as a day off. Not only do our pastors have a responsibility to the church but the church has a responsibility to be good stewards of our pastors.

With Friends Like These...

Job has been quite an interesting read. One thing that I had not noticed before was both the good counsel and the bad counsel of Job’s friends. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite are easily remembered for their poor advice and scolding of Job throughout the book. Their dialogue takes up 9 chapters alone. Throughout their portion of the dialogue they insist that what has happened to Job must be the result of some sin. No matter how much Job protested that he was not guilty his friends kept telling him that all of his losses were his own fault. It turns out that at the end of Job that both the friends and Job were wrong. God allows the rain to fall on the fields of both those that follow him as well as those that do not. And, for reasons we do not always understand, God allows the sun to scorch the land of both as well.

But what I had missed before in my reading of Job was that at one point Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar did provide good counsel for Job. I have to admit that the only reason that I saw it was because my Old Testament teacher in Seminary pointed it out to the class. So this time around I was aware of it:

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
          Job 2:11-13

They sat with him…on the ground…for seven days and seven nights. And no one said a word to him because of they understood just how great his suffering was. I realize that there are going to be times when words will need to be said in times of great suffering. My problem is that I tend to like to talk a lot. What I need to remember is that in these occasions that less is more. How willing would I be to sit in silence on the ground and covered in dust for seven days?

Matthew 26:36-46 tells of Jesus going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray just before he was arrested and crucified. He knew what was coming and he went to pray with his disciples. But they kept falling asleep on him. Jesus was not upset at them for not having just the right thing to say. Rather he said, “Could you not watch with me one hour?” Jesus simply wanted his friends to be with him during his time of need. I think that it is very good advice for anyone comforting someone in need.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.