Commentary by Mike Colaw
The job of pastor is really interesting. In some ways it isn’t what I expected at all. The intellectual side of me desired it to be more like academic research, spending my days exploring and contemplating deep theology and philosophy. Though there is a research component, I have found my role is much more like a counselor. I have found in about 15 years of ministry that the relational rewards are just as wonderful as the ontological ones.
I get to share in the most precious times in people’s lives. On a wedding day I watch dads cry as they hand their daughters off. I get the first hug when someone is baptized and comes up out of the water emotionally overwhelmed as the crowd cheers. I get a front row seat in counseling sessions as the ways of Jesus bring hope, healing and awaken people to a spiritually abundant life. It’s amazing how powerful living like Jesus can be.
I equally get to share in the worst times in people’s lives. It’s my doorbell that rings when a young teen finds out she is pregnant and desperately needs direction. I get the call when families are falling apart. I get to counsel and pray with people who are very sick, face-to-face with death. I even wake in the middle of the night overwhelmed and in tears for people. I have been on the phone with a man just about to take his own life trying to convince him not to. Seminary doesn’t prepare you for that.
As a pastor I do my very best to be transparent week after week as I teach. I would rather share my many faults than pretend I have life figured out. I don’t. It’s not perfect leadership, sermons or counseling I promise the church, it’s the constant pressure to continue to align ourselves with Jesus.
I promise I will constantly try to wake people up from the empty dream that frail, temporary, material things actually satisfy. I don’t see our desires too strong but rather too weak. I want people to be so hungry for meaning and purpose that no job, amount of money or temporal pleasure alone can even begin to satisfy. I want people to see further, think deeper and feel more. I want people to continually wake up.
I get be a pastor, and it is an awesome job.
