The woman wondered out loud, “How can a preacher be depressed? That’s ridiculous.” Inside I was screaming, “Because our people have NO concept of the hurts we deal with on a daily basis.” But, for the very reason she was confused, I kept quiet.
How do Pastors handle bad days and who can they turn to when they get down?
The answer to these questions will tell the tale of the Pastor’s ministry longevity and the church’s health.
There are plenty of articles that explore Pastor burnout, but all of them deal with the cumulative effects of what I am talking about. I am talking about the simple, one day at a time, when it all goes south. When the Pastor has a lousy day, they have a responsibility to overcome it quickly for the benefit of their people. The axiom, “Hurt people hurt people,” is especially true and dangerous for Pastors.
So, instead of giving a number of steps to follow, I want to look at one thing we can do to overcome the effects of a bad day.
Get out.
Don’t get out of the ministry, just get away even if it is only for an hour or two. You need solitude and nothing that you are working on will be as good as it should be unless you stop for the solitude and come back to the work. This is exactly what Jesus modeled yet many still don’t do it.
More than being away from the situation/office/person where your conflict is coming from, we need to get to a place where we can be alone with God.
Early in my ministry I would often try to get somewhere that I could be “alone in a crowd.” A coffee shop or a restaurant seemed like a good retreat, like some anti-Cheers where nobody knows our name. But, often enough we are still under the same stress that drove us out, we simply are drowning it out for a short time. It will be there when we exit the noise and we will still carry it.
In Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, the chapter on Solitude always hits me the hardest. After pointing out Jesus’ many times of solitude Foster writes these words, “Without silence, there is no solitude. Though silence sometimes involves the absence of speech, it always involves the act of listening.”
We need to hear God’s direction in the times of our disappointment. Believing in a loving all-powerful Father loses its meaning if we don’t go to Him when we need love and power to overcome our difficulties.
The best way to overcome our bad days is to practice the discipline that often makes them the hardest. Pastors suffer their bad days exacerbated by the feeling of loneliness. Loneliness can be overcome by solitude, because our Father promises to never leave or forsake us. When we are away from the creatures, the Creator’s closeness becomes evident. If you are having a bad day, I will be glad to give you the solution: Draw Near.
Hebrews 10:19–22
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
