My Heart Hurts

Being a pastor can be great, after all, who else gets paid for full-time work and only works on Sunday!? But there are times when it just hurts. Like today. Nobody died, but I've talked to one person who's parents split when they were 6, who's dad died on their birthday, their mom died and they couldn't get back for the funeral and then a sister died all after they'd recently divorced, moved and changed jobs only to be let go at the new job and now be miles away from their 6 year old kid. And most of that happened in the last year. I've also heard from someone who's ready to call it quits with their marriage, another person who's struggling financially and one who broke up with their fiance.

This is the life of a pastor, and I so want to offer hope and point to Jesus and say everything is going to be alright, but the truth is, it might not be. Nope, things might get worse. That's life. The hope I offer though is not "things will get better," because I can't make that promise and God doesn't make that promise either. I point to eternal life - that's when things will finally be better, if....

And it's the "if" that draws a line in the sand. "If" you haven't met Jesus, things are guaranteed to get worse. That's why we all need to deal with the "if" in LifE - because there are no guarantees here. And that's why my heart hurts. I feel these people's pain, loss, struggle, frustration and heartbreak and I wonder what I'd do "if" it happened to me. There's just no easy answers, but I do believe this: LifE hurts - but Eternal LifE heals.

Sometimes though, I just wish we didn't have to wait.