One of the things I have struggled with for many years is to watch men and women in ministry who never seem to take a break. Are they more anointed than the many who have fallen to the wayside and have left the ministry? Are they more righteous than others who must stand down for one reason or another? Do they have more stamina, more capacity than those who don’t seem to be able to go the distance? Does the whole workaphile v’s workaholic thing have any real truth to it?
One of the most disturbing church statistics is that most men and women who enter the ministry, abandon it after only seven years. It is indeed a disturbing statistic, but I believe it is disturbing for different reasons than those of the statisticians.
You see, these kinds of questions have plagued me for years because I am one of those people who has needed to take a break from ministry from time to time. Not just a sabbath day’s rest .. but a real break .. an extended time out, sometimes for a year or more. In fact, I am currently in one of those times.
As a result, I have again asked myself and God .. Is there something wrong with me? Do I have a diminished emotional capacity? Do I lack real life-flow in my spirit? Am I really called if I seem to need these times out of action?
I was again meditating on these things during the week and I believe I heard God teach me something that brought together so many individual "pieces" of revelation, conviction and concern that I now understand what’s going on .. not only for myself but perhaps for the many who have struggled with the same things.