Hi Caligula,
Originally posted by ~Caligula~
If I had the autoriy I`d ban all religions period. Promising ppl life after death and taking their money or making them do some god awful things in the name of whatever higher being...that`s all religion is good for. Ohh...and the ones that are feeling so righteous that belive they have the right to tell others what they supposed to do and how to go about their lives...gimme a f-in` break already
Given your above assessment, I'm curious, what exactly do you believe I became a Pastor for?
I left a job a stable and very lucrative job as a systems administrator in 1997 just a year before I was finally going to be able to make the jump to head of Information Systems for a D.C. area N.G.O. I moved away from a beautiful house in the horse farm area of Northern Virginia with its own fishing pond in the backyard, I left behind friends, and stability to move to a nasty apartment in the suburbs of Philadelphia in order to begin 4 years of seminary and get a second Masters. In funding that education, my wife and I spent all of our savings and most of our stock options, etc. Eventually after I graduated, and received a call to plant a church in Fayetteville, NC, I moved and left behind good friends and stability yet again, to embark upon a career where we will never earn even half of what we were earning in our last year in Northern Virginia.
Today, I work more hours than I've ever worked in my life, I see less of my family than I did in seminary, I work every week with four consecutive drop-dead writing deadlines, requiring hours of study and prep, that I have to meet regardless of the circumstances. I counsel at least twice a week for several hours (I do not charge for counseling) and we are usually talking about people with big problems, usually after a session they feel better and I feel emotionally drained. I do hospital and prison visitations, and family visitations on a regular basis. I run food to the sick and babysit the kids of the church when the women are meeting. I do funerals, and grieve with the grieving. We provide whatever support we can to wives with deployed husbands and are currently supporting several people without jobs and helping to pay for extra insurance and medical bills. I help with moving families on a moments notice and crisis calls to our house after midnight aren't uncommon. I am also the man who has to go and tell wives that their husbands have been seriously wounded or killed in action. I could sleep or cry at any given moment in the day, but I don't. I drink more coffee than I ever have in my life. By comparison Server administration and user support at its worst was a
cakewalk.And yet, I am not complaining. I quite literally wouldn't leave my calling or my congregation for a million dollars. As hard as it is, I've been used in genuinely helping more people over the past 4 years than I have in the previous 32. And none of that is due one wit to my being high and mighty or "righteous." Far from it, I am just a mere sinner saved by grace, but I do serve a mighty God. Through His ordinary means of grace, I've been blessed to see marriages that were DOA turn around, people turn from lives being eaten up by drugs and alcohol, the lost and friendless gain hope, direction, and companionship, I've seen the faithless, selfish and despairing who have been serving idols that were comsuming them, turn to Christ and begin living faithful lives of loving Christ, dying to self, and serving others and seeking to be a blessing, rather than a curse to those around them.
Now in 36 years of traveling, and learning, and working and even dabbling with a host of other religions and sects, I've never seen anything else with that kind of power or ability to effect the deliverance that comes through the one who says
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matt. 11:29-30) And that, and not hopes of gaining riches that soon perish, is why I answered "I will go, send me" to the command in Matt. 28:18-20.
- SEAGOON
