This past weekend, my wife and I took a road trip to visit family in Virginia.  It was nice to have a long conversation on the journey – enjoying different meals and seeing new things.  A few miles on the way back through the mountains, we stopped by a country store and farm to table restaurant.  Later, we learned it was owned by a famous writer.  Interestingly, the road trip helped us to experience home in a fresh, vibrant way. On a journey, we can feel the vitality of life.  Knowing that “who we are”…

“There is something about the gentle wisdom in a horse’s eye that can put even the most troubled soul at peace.” A desire to serve, guided from Above, helped you enter this sacred path.  Ministry.  Clergy are faced with copious challenges and stressors specific to their vocation.  Ultimately rewarding, yet over time, many pastors encounter struggles with transitions, leadership, self-doubt, or friendships.  Schedules become intense with life/work balance, self-care and identity squeezed in.  Also, coping with emotions such as grief.  The human aspect while serving as a pastor is tenuous. You became connected to the…

The above words come to mind when I work with ministers who face the constant challenges of “our work”.  I often say to my brother and sister clergy, “We can get awfully thirsty giving other people water.”  Anyone in ministry knows what I mean.  We who are called on to provide water to thirsty souls learn over time that giving the water does not mean drinking the water. Those whom we serve must think that we have some kind of artesian spring that naturally feeds our spirit.  Not true.  We too need to stop by…