If you have worked in ministry for very long, you have probably dealt with these barriers to your productive work. Boredom. Frustration. Disappointment. It happens. Sometimes it is the result of a job or task that is repetitive…and often doesn’t seem to go anywhere. You do it again and again…and don’t see any lasting result.

Maybe it is the many limitations to ministry that bring on frustration. Not enough resources…money. Not enough help. Not enough time for all that must be done. And possibly the mental and emotional roadblocks come because of thing that just don’t turn out the way you thought they should. A key staff person leaves. A project you were working on must be shut down. Expansion that you felt was necessary just won’t happen in the current climate. On and on the challenges come.

All of these things are hard. They take a toll on a leader who is trying to chart a path to greater impact of the Gospel.

What do you do?

As hard as it sounds, you just keep on. You come in the next day and plunge into the work. You look at the tasks and decide how you can do them better, or even determine if you should delegate them to someone else. You don’t give up. You don’t give in. You give it your best…anyway!

Eugene H. Peterson has a book in whose title itself is instructive to us: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society. We seem to want instant gratification in just about every area of our lives. We want to blink problems away. We want to have a magic pill that fixes things…and does so quickly. We drum our fingers on the top of the microwave because it’s too slow!

Peterson says most people today want some sort of “religious experience” without the effort. Peterson says:

“…there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.”

A long obedience in the same direction.

Now, if we aren’t careful, that “long obedience” seems like trudging down a muddy lane to get to the next destination. No joy. No sense of accomplishment. No great prospects of accomplishing much.

And even the Scripture that remind us, “Our ways are not God’s ways,” rings hollow in our heart.

My suggestion is to look at the big picture of what the Lord is doing through us and our ministry work. What is the ultimate goal? What are the end results of your work? What is the “finished product?” Business management consultant Peter Drucker says the product of a nonprofit is a “changed life.” The ultimate changed life is one that has surrendered to Christ as Lord of their life. Is that worth the times of boredom, frustration, and even disappointment? Yes!

While writing this I was dealing with a bit of disappointment in our MEDIAlliance ability to minister internationally due to the covid pandemic. This morning in my Bible study I came across a passage in Ecclesiastes that helped me deal with that disappointment.

Accept the way God does things,

for who can straighten what he has made crooked?

Ecclesiastes 7:13 NLT

The road may seem crooked. It may seem boring, frustrating, and even disappointing. But our sovereign Lord is ahead of us on that path. Our goal is a long obedience in the same direction…toward the Lord’s call in our life. As the Apostle Paul said, “I press on to the high calling…”

God’s best…