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Person 1: Oh, serving the Lord is tiring.

Person 2: What? You shouldn’t get tired serving the Lord!

Person 1: Really?

Have you heard this conversation before? Or have you been in this kind of conversation before. Me, I’ve heard this a lot. And just recently, I encountered this exact scenario, a servant of God saying he got tired (just tired, not quiting) due to his probably hectic schedule doing the ministry of the Lord. One of his friend said that if it is for the Lord, he shouldn’t be tired. Well, the commenter might have a pessimistic mind on that but I think that isn’t things go.

Isaiah 40:30-31 reads:

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. (NIV)

I believe the verse is clear, ‘Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;’. We are human beings. We are not robots. It is natural, let me repeat – natural - for a person to get tired, whatever he is doing cause he is using muscles that require energy to work. And like any other job, once your body has reached it’s peak on the “tiredness meter”, your brain will send out signals to your whole body to rest. If you don’t, then you’re either a super human being or you’re deceiving yourself. I remember Ptr. Rick Warren on one of his Purpose Driven Church Seminar (watched it on CD) when he said, “Mary had a little lamb, it would have been a sheep, it joined a local church and died in lack of sleep.”

Let us be honest and real. We do get tired while we are serving the Lord. However, it doesn’t end there. God made a promise. That even though you’ll get tired (verse 30), if your hope is in the Lord, he will renew your strength (verse 31). Take note the on the last two lines it said “not grow weary” and “not be faint”. Isn’t this the one that says we shouldn’t be tired when serving the Lord? I believe this only means that God will give us unlimited renewal of strength. That every time we feel weak, God will refuel us. That every time we feel tired, God will strengthen us.

Let us confess that we are only human. We do get tired. But we have a God, that’s always willing to strengthen us.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

- Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

God bless.

Image: Jeff Ratcliff / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When I came in to that Church, Service starts at 10 in the morning. After few months, we have decided to move it at an earlier time (8 in the morning) so we could conduct Sunday school for adults after the service. Sad to say, members doesn’t want to go to church that early, so they came to church around 9 a.m., and later on 10 am. So, our pastor announced that the adult Sunday school shall be 9:30 and Service begins at 10.

Last Easter Sunday, we had our “Sunrise Service” at 5 in the morning. Almost everyone is in the church by 5:20. During the service, our pastor mentioned that he thinks it would be nice if we move our schedule in an earlier time. After the service, some members talked about moving the schedule at an earlier time because of the following reason:

• It feels more relaxed if we go to church at an earlier time
• It is summer (Philippines, tropical country) and it is hot (I mean HOT) at noon time, so if we could go home at an earlier time, we the sun isn’t that “high” yet.
• You can do your “things” that you want to do (cook, go to mall, chat with peers, etc) longer after the service.

Even I, myself, agreed with these. As you can see, the reasons are materialistic and for personal gain.

There was no formal announcement made. We had a Friday Worship last week, and they said (I’m at work that time) that they all agreed to move the service at 8am. And they said that everyone was informed regarding the change.

It was Saturday evening when we were discussing this matter with some of the people involved with this. And I was arguing to them that we couldn’t just change the schedule right away since there is no formal announcement for the congregation. But they insisted that everyone was informed and they have already talked about it.

Sunday came, our pastor was invited in another church. So I am the one in charge. We came at the church around 7:30am. It is already 8:15 and there are only 10 (more or less) people in the room (our regular attendee, 25 – 30). We started at 8:15. After some praise and worship songs, prayers, readings, and hymns, I was called by our “emcee” for the message. My message is from Psalms 40:3 (The reason why we worship and what should happen when we worship).

In my message, I can’t help but to mention what happened. I asked the church who should be the one adjusting with the schedule, is it God or us? We adjust the schedule for “our own convenience”.

Maybe we already forgot, Jesus left all the comforts of heaven. Lived with us humans, suffered and died on the cross, all because of us. He left ALL THE COMFORTS OF HEAVEN JUST TO SUFFER AND DIE ON EARTH for our sins. And here we are, going to church in our most convenient time. We go to a church as long as the place is comfortable for us. We listen to preaching as long as we like the preacher and the message (but don’t listen if the message hurts us). We go to church because of so many reasons that is self centered.

Sighs…

We finished at around 9:30am. We were already packing up things when one family came. They said they were never informed that the schedule had changed (what they know is 9:30 for Sunday school, 10 for the service). So we told them what happened. Just as we were about to close the Church entrance, another family came, and we told them the same thing. And right after we placed in the security locks (my pastor’s away, so no one is in the pastoral house), another family came. Another family was going to the church when they meet one of our members going home. He told them about the new schedule.

Well, at least now, everyone is informed.