Clergy Appreciation month

So amongst many other things, October is Clergy Appreciation month. A time when, hopefully, congregants will go out of their way to let their pastors, priest, rabbis, etc know how very valued they are.

Being someone of the cloth is not an easy task. You are an "under-shepherd" to the great Shepherd, a guide, a counselor, a preacher, a comfortor, a rebuker, an evangelist and a teacher...all at once. Some clergy are paid, some are bi-vocational, and some do the calling for no money and rely on a secondary "tent making position." You don't work 40 hours, you work every waking hour. You are always being caught up in prayer, in preparation, in teaching, in speaking, in writing, in asking for funds in order to do God's work, in reaching out, in consoling and in caring.

You do an amazing job, with so much placed upon you. Most of you feel you have to do this alone, because you don't want to appear weak to those who need your strength. If you are lucky, you have an understanding spouse and a network of friends who have the same calling. People you can be human with, vent with, seek counsel from.

You heard God's call and answered. You seek to do His work in an often hostile world. You seek to show His grace to the broken, and do it all knowing you also have to report to a board of elders, or vestry, or whomever. Your time and life are not only given to the Lord, but to those you minister to. You are amazing.

I see what a clergyman goes through, as I'm married to one. I see the prayers, the anguish, the tears and the joy. I see the love for the lost, and the frustration at needless barriers and quarrels. I see the radiant joy of doing the Lord's work in my husband Charles' eyes, and I know so many others who feel that same joy.

So here is to Charles and my friends in the clergy...God strengthen you, God be with you, God protect you and God bless you. You make this world a better place for the rest of us.