When You Face Trials That Ask for More than You Have
Written by Joseph Sherrard, an associate pastor at Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church (EPC) outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
There will be a time for each of us in life and ministry when we’ll face challenges that ask for more than what we currently possess. We’ll face challenges our prior training and experience can’t solve. Patterns of sin that can no longer be rationalized away. Old wounds that can no longer be ignored.
Whatever they are, when we come to these challenges we’ll have a choice: We can either make superficial changes to our lives or we can accept the Lord’s invitation to dig a deeper well that will help us persevere, endure, and go “from strength to strength” (Ps. 84:7).
To do this deeper work, we need trusted mentors to guide and shepherd us. I wrote recently about the gift of mentors from the past for moments like these. It’s important—even necessary—to have a contemporary mentor you can talk to face-to-face. But six years ago, I found a local church pastor who died a millennium and a half ago. Augustine of Hippo was the pastoral voice I needed to help me face both the reality within my heart and the challenges of ministry.
When we look back to those who have gone before us, to those who have faced dilemmas similar to our own and have navigated them faithfully, we can learn wisdom from them that will steady and fortify us. I pray that my words will help you to find the mentor you need for whatever you’re facing in life and ministry.
—Joseph
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