The Office Couch

For those of you who have been in my office, the first thing you will see when you come in the door in a brown couch and a pink chair. This is often used by the youth and children as they come hangout in my office while I am working, but the part that is not seen in the hours that they are slept on. The times when the door is closed and the lights are off and I am left in my office trying to rest.

A while back I had the opportunity to walk into a pastor’s office and in the corner of his office there was a cot. I asked what that was for and he told me “The short nights and the long days.” As usual, I said that there was a sermon in that and I couldn’t be more right. Ministry has been full of days where sleep is in short supply at night or when the hours in the day is long. It is full of times when you have a moment right now to rest for later will be nothing but go go go. It is those times when the couch is slept on or the chair has a curled up minister that shows the devotion that is ministry.

It is often forgotten that in times of peril or times of grief one of the first people on the scene is a pastor. The pastor makes it out in the middle of the night, setting aside their family because you needed them. The pastor may be the one who is in the chair next to your hospital bed because you had no one else to come and be with you. It may be that the pastor is tired, but you are worth it.

Remember to thank your pastor. They do more than you can see and go through more than you know.