Ready

OK, so here's the response to the "Yes, but..." that many of you were thinking after you read yesterday's Perfect blog!Surely you can't expect me to be perfect! Nobody's perfect.

Recently I've had the opportunity to speak with many pastors about the potential in their people, some young people, some not so young. And very often the question is about whether or not the person in question is ready or not for the job, the priesthood call, the responsibility, whatever. How do you tell if someone is ready?

Pastors, by their very nature, tend to be very caring people, "pastoral" you might say. They often would rather just keep piling work on themselves rather than burden someone else, especially someone who might not be ready for the task at hand.

So I ask, who is ever totally and completely ready for anything? Who is ready to start this job? to be a parent? to step before this audience? to write this book, or blog, or sermon? But you need to step into the future and get the experience and maybe some day in the future you'll be ready. But then, the call will come for some newer bigger challenge. It's how life works.

If you are a pastor or a leader just now, look around at who might someday be ready, make the call and then stand by to mentor and support but also be prepared to let them go and do the job. They might be more ready than you imagined.

Posted by Marion