Better Chaplain Series - Do Not Grow Weary in Doing Good

Ministry to the military can be hard for local churches as well as chaplains. Brand new recruits find their way to your door with all sorts of strange beliefs, burdens, and sins; by the grace of God they are saved by the gospel you have been entrusted with, they begin to grow, they are fast becoming disciples, and then they move far far away. And a new recruit with stranger beliefs, burdens, and sins shows up at your door fresh out of training.

It’s a never ending washing away of all of your progress, leading to an immature church with baby Christians despite your long years and long hours of work; if you’re exhausted and discouraged by it, you’re not alone.

Then there's the counseling room with a couple who are minutes away from divorce. Through your painstaking listening, loving, reproof, homework, and a breakthrough, they begin to love each other again. Then a new couple comes in and they’re even closer to divorce than the first couple.

It’s enough to throw your hands up in the air and give up. Maybe that’s why Paul said in two letters, “Do not grow weary in doing good.” (Galatians 6:9, 1 Thessalonians 3:13) I wonder if Paul said it twice (both early in his ministry) because he was encouraging himself just as much as his hearers not to give up. Christianity takes the lowest of the low, the "guttermost" of sinners, gives us the blessing of helping them find salvation, new life, and a seat at the table of the Son of God, and while it's wonderful, it is wearisome and messy.

Chaplain, are you in a season of exhaustion, wearied by the work—albeit good—that God has given you to do? Do not grow weary of doing good, in due season you will reap, IF you do not give up. As the world tends towards entropy and the world is not growing weary in doing malice, we are given the opportunity to do good to everyone, especially those who are of the household of faith.

Some want to live within the sound of chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell. ~ Charles Thomas Studd

More:

1. In John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress a man named Help (Hebrew – Ezra) spends his days on the banks of the Slough of Despond pulling drowning pilgrims out of the mire. Have you dragged anyone out of the swamp recently?

2. A constant warning for ministers is to avoid burn-out. Dave McFadden defines burn-out as mismanaged stress, taking on responsibility that is not ours. Are you feeling burnt-out? Could the reason be that you’re trying to be Jesus, instead of his ambassador? Jesus said that if you don’t preach, the rocks will cry out; so your ministry is not a necessity, but a privilege. Go and be privileged to do good. Do it in the strength of Isaiah 40:31.

3. It has long been said that the military is centuries of tradition unhindered by progress. If you’re trying to build a kingdom on earth the chaplaincy will humble you very quickly. But the people sitting in front of you, though you might not see it, are progressing because of your ministry to point them to the true and living Saviour.

4. Resources:

Go Fish. “Gotta Move.” Gotta Move. Go Fish Kids Records, 2002.

Powlison, David. Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2003.