Terrific quote from Jack Miller to end one year/begin another in ministry:
“One thing that can be hard for a minister is just the enduring. After you have been in the pastorate for a decade or more, you begin to see many weaknesses and sins in yourself, many failures in the ministry, and become increasingly aware of the resistance in God’s people to change. As our insights grow, so do our temptations to increase in despair. As a friend in Christ I would urge you to resist that temptation. Frequently take time to look over the church, your ministry, your family, and give God thanks for each good thing you see. So not only endure in the ministry but blossom with thankfulness and praise. Perhaps you have heard me say this before, but I like to think of repentance and praise as allied to each other - both forms of sanity. Repentance is a return to God as my centre. Praise is the lifting up of God in honour as my centre. But to move out away from the centre without repentance and praise is to be eccentric, irrational and insane. But what a simple thing it is to humble the heart and return to sanity by repentance and praise.
(The Heart of a Servant Leader, p.56)
