Someone asked me recently, "What do you hate about your job?"
Um, um, um...
Hesitation.
This was a new question. Why did this person think there would be something about my job that I didn't like? A preacher is not supposed to be disgruntled. Ever. This is one of our best kept secrets. It sounds to me like we've got a rat in this outfit. Somebody snitched.
You see, most people I come across assume pastors are perpetually happy. They think ministers spend our days petting puppies and running through rolling lilac fields (for the record, neither of these things would make me overtly happy). I know many pastors who perpetuate this myth. They post "I'd do this for free" and "pinch me, I think I'm dreaming" on twitter accounts they only frequent to appear as cool as their twelve year old kid. But these posts are often far from their truth. They are tools of tired men intent on propagating myths of ministerial-bliss-on-earth because they assume you can't handle anything otherwise. Like a well-meaning parent telling little Timmy that "Daddy took Rusty to a farm in the country", they tell you what they think you want to hear.
The true fact of the matter is that pastors struggle with their work, too. They tire just like everybody else. You think your pastor is Superman, but studies show that Pastor I-Wouldn't-Change-A-Thing is more likely to spend the day staving off burnout than flying over Metropolis. Like mere mortals, he may hide the fact that he takes antidepressants, shops exclusively from the clearance rack, curses at his computer, and dreads going to the office.
Your pastor will be awake, medicated and in clean laundry for tonight's potluck, but that is still seven hours away. In the meantime, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that he's perusing a job site as Bill, not Pastor Bill. Some days he loves his job. But it might not be today.
So, when I was asked "what do you hate about your job", I realized that our little secret was out. Now they know. Rusty isn't on a farm in the country...Rusty was run over by the UPS driver. Pastors don't love their job every single day. Pastors have days that they would love to do anything else. There are moments when being in the ministry is amazing, but there are moments that it is not. Sometimes our job sucks as much as your job does. We just assumed no one knew that.
Can you handle that truth? If so, come back tomorrow. I'll tell you what I hate about my job.
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