The Old Preacher

“The graveyards are full of indispensable men”.

__Charles De Gaulle 

I’m not a cynic, but I’m not a fool either. 

I know that much of the respect and deference that I currently receive in life has little to do with me but more to do with my title and position.  I get it. 

I learned this as a pastor. 

When a pastor leaves a church there is often the proverbial weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth…but life moves on and soon…very soon…the respectful title of “Pastor” is attached to someone else. 

This is natural.  But it did teach me early on that life can go on without me. 

There will come a day when I will lay down the gavel, pack up my stuff, leave my keys on the desk and walk out for the last time.  What then?

The following quote from Phillips Brooks’ Lectures on Preaching gives me great comfort and direction…

“The delightful French artist, Millet, used to say to his pupils: ‘The end of the day is the proof of a picture.’ 

He meant that the twilight hour, when there is not light enough to distinguish details, is the most favorable time to judge of a picture as a whole.  And so it is with the ministry. 

When the cross-lights of jealous emulation and the glare of constant notoriety are softening towards the darkness in which lies the pure judgment of God and the peace of being forgotten by mankind, then that which has been lying behind them all the time comes out; and the old preacher who has ceased to care whether men praise or blame him, who has attained or missed all that there is for him of success or failure here, preaches on still out of the pure sense of how precious the soul of man is, and the pure desire to serve a little more that which is so worthy of his service, before he goes.”

The ONE THING for today: Whatever your rank, position or title, one day you will lay it down.  What then?