My Lesson On Health And Ministry

One of my good friends is a pastor, I meet with him every week and one of the things he told me that has really stuck with me was “the health of the minister matters.” Honestly there was a season where I didn’t take care of it like I should have and it taught me a lesson that I’m currently working on.

A few years ago I got so wrapped up in ministry, serving, working, and pouring myself out that I slowly stopped taking care of myself. I was completely burned out, and instead of allowing God to fill me and restore me, I tried to keep going on empty. That began to effect all areas of my life, and probably the most noticeable was my health and fitness.

I started eating pretty terrible, neglected exercise, and let myself go. And it happened slowly to the point that I didn’t even really realize it was happening.

A little compromise here, a little neglect there, and one unhealthy decision became another until one day I started seeing myself in pictures and was like “how did I get here?” That experience made me think about how sin and compromise can do that same thing in our spiritual lives.

Usually compromise happens slowly, we stop praying like we used to, we stop taking care of ourselves, we justify one decision, then another, and eventually we look up and realize we’re further away then we ever intended to be. But thank God for His grace.

God has been changing me both physically and spiritually. He has changed the way I see Him, the way I see ministry, and I can finally allow God to pour into me these days like He always intended.

For the last few months my lifelong friend Clay and I have been running and working out pretty much every day, and I’m working towards getting healthy, losing weight, becoming stronger, and taking better care of the body God has given me because I want to be a good steward of what God has entrusted to me.

Let God restore you, let Him change you, and let Him strengthen you today.

By God’s grace, change is possible.