Uncommon Legend

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope you all are doing great and making the best of life. This year I plan on blogging and honing my writing craft. To be honest with you, I was only going to keep this to myself at first, but I felt like it was too good not to share. Most of you know that my full-time career is in vocational ministry, and I enjoy my work. Today I was beginning to prepare for my sermon for the next week, and the passage made me look inwardly at why I do ministry. 

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) ⁶⁵ And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

⁶⁶ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” – (John 6: 60 – 69, ESV)

I’m often tasked with the question of why ministry and why campus ministry specifically. The first is honestly harder to answer, so let me start with the easy part first. I remember how fun and exciting yet challenging college was and how I am so thankful for the campus ministers that played a massive role in my success.

Now for the hard part. This passage of scripture comes after Jesus spoke to many disciples that followed him, and as we see, they walked away. For me, I have felt like Peter. Jesus’ words are hard to swallow at times but seeing as he is the way to heaven, I must follow him because if I don’t, what else is there? In other words, what other job could I work? I’ve put all my chips in the middle and solely focused on serving him, so my resume doesn’t exactly scream engineer, lawyer, or doctor. Therefore, I must keep serving in ministry. Besides that, he’s too good not to help! I could do something else and live a dull, uneventful life. However, I know I have been called to do much more. Jesus will call me to go to strange places and do things outside my capacity sometimes, but what else would I do, settle for mediocrity? 

I say all of this because I know it’s the beginning of the year, and most of us are making new plans or quitting. If I could offer you one piece of advice as you do so, try this: follow Jesus. Whether you have been following him for years or looking to do it for the first time, it will be weird, scary, and sometimes frustrating. And let me add just one more admonishment. You will feel hopeless at times because others walk away from the Christian faith, and things look like they are better for them. However, don’t follow the crowd. It’s not that they had less faith, but instead, they were fed lies about Jesus. 

When you get a chance, read Chapter 6 of the Gospel account of John because it encapsulates Jesus and why we should have faith in him. Other chapters are also great, but today that’s the one that is heavy on my heart. I know today is a lot more preachy than usual, but it’s what I felt led to talk about, and it’s all from the heart. Being a follower of Christ is challenging. Many people will judge, ridicule, and tease you. But trust me; it’s worth it because he has eternal life.