“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 2:3
Have you ever found yourself doing the work of God and at the same time find yourself knee deep, perhaps even over your head, in stress? If you have ever served as a leader in God’s Kingdom in any way, shape or form, I am guessing that you have. In fact, stress is a very common component of ministry. Dealing with stress and taking on stressful projects is ministry. It just is. There is no way to remove the stress from ministry. There are certainly ways to minimize it and there are certainly ways to deal with it in a healthy manner. However, stress is a part of the activity. People are unpredictable, stubborn and messy. Ministry projects like organizing events, preparing for teaching opportunities and administration in general are rarely easy. Stress is a part of the job.
If we define ministry as the work of God or His kingdom work then we should not be surprised that stress is an unavoidable part of the job. Were there any of God’s Kingdom workers in the Bible that did not deal with incredible amounts of stress at times? Just think about the disciples and Paul for a second. Think about all of the stress that they had to endure throughout their lives. Almost all of them were executed for their faith. They were no strangers to stress. God’s Kingdom work is inherently stressful. It is stressful because we do have an enemy that is working against us in this world. It is stressful because the work of God runs directly against the flow of this world. It is stressful because people are the target of God’s work and people are complex, blind and broken. But it is also stressful because like every other job in this world it is time-consuming, laborious work at times.
No one likes stress. We all have it in varying degrees and we all want to get rid of it. In fact, it seems like our world has made it a goal to remove all stress from life. All of the latest products, self-help books and technology seem to be singularly aimed at making life easier. Of course, this is quite ironic since life with these new products and technology is only making our daily lives more and more complex and therefore more and more stressful. Stress has been marked as our enemy. The world struggles against it every day. And yet we are making negative progress in the war.
It is not uncommon for ministry leaders to complain about their stress levels. However, we need to be very careful with this issue of stress. The goal of dealing with stress is not its removal. It never has been. That is impossible. It is not even Biblical. Jesus promised us that if we choose to serve Him in this world we will be forced to endure hardship and persecution. (Mark 10:30) Jesus clearly taught His disciples that stress was and is an unavoidable part of serving in His Kingdom!
Paul also addressed this issue in 2 Timothy 2:3-6. Here Paul uses 3 analogies to illustrate the life that ministry leaders are meant to live. The first analogy is that of a soldier. He encourages Timothy to suffer as a good soldier for Jesus. Paul knew that suffering and stress were part of the deal. A soldier’s life is not easy. A soldier’s job is to follow orders, fight and perhaps even to die in the process. A soldier’s life is inherently stressful. The soldier has a singular focus and that is following the orders of his superior. The soldier has no time for the comfort items of life or other selfish pursuits. His focus is obedience. The second image is that of an athlete. An athlete’s life is not easy either. An athlete must train his body. An athlete regularly submits his body to strict regimens of stress in order to accomplish his or her goal. The athlete is focused on the prize and disciplines his or her life around that focus. It is certainly not a stress free life. Finally, Paul talks about the hard working farmer. Anyone who is familiar with farming knows that it is hard work. There is nothing easy about farming. It is a stressful job.
Stress free ministry is a myth. Nor is it even a desirable goal when you really think about it. Paul rejoiced in Philippians that he could share in the sufferings of Christ. We know that Jesus endured stress while He was on earth. What would it look like for us to rejoice in the stress of ministry? This is certainly an otherworldly concept but it is a Biblical one: Rather than run from stress, God wants us to embrace it and even to celebrate in it. He wants us to suffer like good soldiers. In time, we will find rest and He will lift us up. He will remove the stress and replace it with joy.
Yes, we should seek balance in our lives. We should not attempt to do more than we can do. We need to take time out to rest. We must discipline our selves to regularly spend time alone in silence and solitude so that God can renew us and give us the strength we need to endure. However, we also must embrace the fact that stress is going to happen if we desire to serve God on this earth. We cannot and should not run from it. It is unavoidable. It is actually is a good thing. Through the stress of our ministry activities we get to share in the sufferings of Christ. And our suffering produces in us Godly fruit. James reminds us that stress produces in us faith and perseverance. (James 1)
So, as you lead and experience stress….rejoice and suffer like a good soldier for His Kingdom.