(“Thoughts I Want
To Leave Behind” is a collection of thoughts and impressions I want to leave
behind as I begin to make my final pastoral transition.)

#14 Spiritual
Janitors

You have not been
called to be a spiritual janitor.  All
the messes caused by other people are not immediately your concern.  There are times when a mess, caused by
someone else, needs to sit there on the spiritual floor to be seen by all who
pass by.  Your rush to clean things up
can actually get the in the way of what God wants to do.

Be careful that you
don’t create in others the need of your presence to resolve each and every
dysfunction in their life.  This may make
you feel needed, but in the end it will actually rob others of their
responsibility to call on the Lord instead of calling on you.

We are asked to
bear the burdens of others, but this bearing of another person’s burden is not
permission for you to take on the weight of their choices.  Jesus said anything we carry in His name
would be light and not cumbersome including the burdens of other people.  Jesus never asked you to bear the weight of
another person’s poor decision-making process. When you begin to carry this
weight the relationship will get heavy and clumsy with a responsibility that is
not yours.  That weight will be your clue
that you have assumed a role you were never assigned to fulfill.