Have you ever had those days when you wake and really don’t want to do what you need to?! You’d rather stay in bed and do nothing productive?
It was one of those days. I didn’t sleep well the night before, so I woke up exhausted.
Ministry was scheduled an hour earlier to try to fit in another house visit in the afternoon; we were notified as soon as we woke up. No quiet time!
We had our morning worship/prayer session; nobody was itching to give a message. I decided that I wasn’t going to either. Awkward silence. I had a message to share, but no part of me wanted to give it. No part of me wanted to do ministry today. But I opened my mouth and gave the message on my heart.
We headed out the door to the first house. I tried singing quietly—but so did everyone else!! So I sang louder, despite the feeling in my gut that didn’t want to do anything. I shared a message since everyone else was reluctant to do it. At the end, one of my teammates asked me to pray for the family. I’m not going to lie—I was very upset!
On the walk to the next house, I prayed. I knew I needed an attitude adjustment. I knew it was a character day and I knew that I needed to press into ministry today more than ever. I prayed for strength and peace.
At each house after, I felt the same. I felt like everyone was having a character day and not wanting to do ministry. It was a constant “course-correction” for my thinking—to talk myself into doing what I knew God wanted me to do. Pastor said that we looked tired, so he cancelled the house visits—for tomorrow! “Why not today?! I NEED REST TODAY!” I thought to myself. “Character day,” I kept reminding myself.
We finished the second house. In my relief, we were going to head home and nap. But we arrived home, just in time for “5 pm snack time”. It was too late to nap. We just ate a late lunch at 3, and now we were being pressured into eating “snack”, which was usually the size of a normal meal. I tried saying no, but that wasn’t an option today.
We ate snack, and I took the few minutes we had to prepare my heart and mind for the next house visit. I prepared a message. Turned out we went to two houses, at dinner at 11 pm and arrived home late.
My whole body hurt. I had a headache, probably from being so frustrated all day. But I knew that the Lord was always with me—I heard His still-small voice loudly throughout the day. While it wasn’t my favorite day of the race, I trust that character days are days of stretching us out of our comfort zone—to make us more flexible to accomplish God’s will for us.
“But we shall glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5
