About Pace

Last week I had a small epiphany. For a couple years I have been grumbling about my work schedule and workload. Surely I am working harder than my peers. I have no proof of this, but it gives me an excuse to whine.

I will be 70 this year. How did that happen!? Was I not banging on barracks doors of soldiers, sailors, and airmen not that long ago? But I digress. I realized one morning recently that I’m not working harder. I am working a “normal” Nav staff schedule, probably lighter than in my early days.

Then this morning, I received more insight as I was having my devotions in 2 Corinthians 4. I stopped at verse 16. How many times have I read this and nodded in agreement? However, this time it really resonated. The Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) puts it quite well:

 Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day. 

I am decaying! I am wasting away! Yes, the inward is being renewed, I can attest to that. But, man, I just don’t have the wherewithal to keep up this pace. My brain and bones tell me this daily. It is a confirmation that I need to back off. I need to take my foot off the accelerator. I fully expect to keep working for the gospel, but I am hoping the pace will slow.

I want to cut back my ministry hours and release my funding to the younger staff who are desperate to get up to budget. While I will keep a ministry expense account, I want to siphon off my reserves to those on the front end of trying to make it. We all remember what a steep mountain that was.

Can you identify? Perhaps God is leading you to become a funding advocate too! (Funding advocates introduce their donors to staff who are not yet fully funded.)

I welcome your feedback on these issues. Email me here.