The Great Need

What are you feeling? How are you feeling? Anxious? Afraid? Blessed? Excited? Bored? Upset? Weak? Strong? Happy? Sad? How are YOU feeling? 

We ask that often. "How is it going?" It is a way to say hello. It isn't an invitation to actually say how you are doing. The person asking often doesn't have the time to hear your answer. So we respond with the bland, "Good." "OK." "Fine." or something similar. We don't really say how we are doing. We hold that in. We let it stay inside of us. 

Perhaps that is why folks are willing to talk with their pastor. They hope that he has time to talk to them. No, that isn't true. They hope that he has time to listen to them, to let them open up, to pour out their heart, their joys, their fears, their feelings. 

As a pastor, I listen. I don't always have the right words to say. Many times, it isn't about having the right words to say. It is about being that caring heart that actually listens to what they have to say. As a pastor, the one thing that I know is that the Lord has called me to be that one that the needy, the hurting, the weak, the ill, the sin-sick, the emotionally drained can come to and talk to. To know that there is one who is willing to listen.

Then to bring one thing forward, the love of Christ, the message that while the world around them is too busy, too unwilling to listen, to filled with anxiety and pain in itself, there is one who will listen. Who will bring the word of the Healer to them. That word is the message of the love of Christ, that touches the heart and life in many different ways. 

The pastor listens. He cares. He wants to be the one that represents the Rock, the Healer, the Savior, the Lover, the Teacher, the One who cares in every situation. The speaks only when he can bring Christ into the conversation. He lets the hurting pour herself/himself out. He is there for that person, for that moment, no other moment matters because that person at that time needs Christ and he is Christ's representative for that person. 

Take a moment and say a prayer - for the person who is hurting, upset, anxious, fearful. Then thank Jesus for His love. And when you are ready to say "Amen," stop and say, "Thank You for the one who listened to me in my pain." 

Your pastor is there for you. I am there for you.