Jay Moses preached at Scott Beck's ordination last weekend. What I remember most was the claim that "there is no such thing as a happy pastor and, to expand that, a happy Xian. This comforts me and makes me uneasy at the same time. It's comforting because I have never felt completely at ease with my Call. I have never resonated with pastor friends who "can't imagine doing anything else." I have always wished to do something else, but God won't let me. It's a Call, and I am obedient to it, even if restless within it.
However, I am uneasy with Jay's claim (if it is an absolute) because I certainly have experienced "happiness" within this vocation: pockets of mirth, seasons of smiles, lots of laughter. I will not feel guilty about that.
It seems to me that the pastor as well as the Xian, goes through the normal ups and downs of life like everyone else. But there is the call to follow Christ and that following (I think this is what Jay was getting at) ought to lead to some kind of suffering and death, in whatever form that takes. It's a balance between joy and pain--perhaps being able to experience joy and, yes, even happiness, while in the midst of or on the way to suffering.
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" 'For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it' (Mark 8:35. As Fredrick Buechner reminds us, when Jesus says these words, he is not telling us how, morally speaking, life ought to be; he is telling us how life IS."
-C. Plantinga
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