How do you ensure that you don’t take yourself too seriously?

Some weeks in ministry are draining. And that which would normally be life-giving becomes absolutely draining. Your message tanks. You completely lose control of staff meeting. Your kids tried to smoke crayons in the nursery and undressed Barbie in Sunday School – and their teacher is your Head Deacon’s wife. Monday rolls around and you’ve developed that uncontrollable tick in your eye.

On that day, Jack Miller’s advice to a Ugandan missionary applies to you:

Make sure you you are enjoying yourself and not taking your work too seriously. You don’t have anything to prove to us or the world. The work is finished at Calvary, and that work alone has unlimited meaning and value. Keep your focus there. As quoted by Bob Glenn

Now, we have to be diligent and wisely steward the gifts that God gives us, but I’m convinced that we often take ourselves too seriously and can find ourselves relying on our own efforts and lose sight of the finished work of Christ. We begin to rely on our own strengths and get entirely too uptight, when we should enjoy and savor each breath as a grace of God.

How do you ensure that you don’t take yourself too seriously?

2 Comments

  1. I like this post. I’ve long taken the philosophy of ministry that the work must be taken seriously, but I must not take myself seriously at all. It’s certainly helped through some difficult times, but I really love the advice to the Ugandan missionary to remember that “the work is finished at Calvary.” Talk about forcing you to put things in perspective!

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