God's Frisbee® dog
Communicating God's Love
Fresh out of college and bound for seminary, Chris Symes preached in his home church a
few Sundays ago.
Chris told us that for several years he has felt God calling him to ordained ministry.
He captured my attention when he said: "My mission is to be God's Frisbee® dog." What did he mean by that? He explained with this story:
"There is a park that I go to from time to time to read, play guitar, think, and reflect. While enjoying a fantastic book one day, I began to notice a beautiful black Labrador retriever.
"The lab was excited about something, and I soon figured out why. The owner was nearby and he pulled out a Frisbee® and proceeded to launch it into the air. The dog became incredibly excited. I watched in amazement as he would chase this Frisbee® nearly thirty yards out. He would effortlessly jump into the air and catch the Frisbee®. I could hear the chomp cut through the air like it was only a few feet away.
"Once the dog caught the Frisbee®, he would bring it back to his master, stand very still, and anxiously wait with intense attention, knowing that at any moment the Frisbee® would fly again. His master would proceed to throw the Frisbee® into the air, and the same would happen.
"As I sat there watching this activity, I could not help but notice the sheer joy on the dog's face. He was passionate about this activity, as if this was his single, most important purpose in the world. He looked like he was smiling as he sailed through the air with his stiff ears shaking in the wind. It was as if this was what he was created for.
"As I stood there just watching, I came to this conclusion: I want to be God's Frisbee® dog."
Isn't that a creative way for Chris to describe how he feels as he answers God's call to ministry?
With the passing years, has your assurance of God's call and your passion for ministry faded?
Unfortunately, it has for many clergy. A recent study concludes that four out of ten ministers are "experiencing mild to severe burnout, leaving many so dissatisfied with their present calling that they would quit tomorrow if it were not too costly to do so."
Those of us who have been pastors for a few years understand why clergy are prone to burnout. What we want to know is what we can do to avoid it.
I asked my friend, Dr. Michael (Mickey) Potts -- an ordained minister and a licensed professional counselor in private practice in Edmond, Oklahoma -- how we can minimize the risk of burnout. If anyone knows, he should. In addition to counseling with clergy and their families, he leads workshops on pastoral leadership, and he is married to a United Methodist district superintendent.
So, what advice does Mickey have for minimizing the risk of burnout? He says the key is to take seriously what Jesus commands us to do: love ourselves.
"Loving ourselves may sound easy compared to loving God and loving our neighbors," says Mickey, "but it's not."
He points out that loving ourselves means knowing ourselves, accepting ourselves, respecting ourselves, being true to ourselves, and taking care of ourselves.
"To love yourself you must accept the reality that you are human; you are not God," says Mickey. You must remember that even though you are created in the image of God and even though you have been called to be an agent of God, you are not God.
"Like all other human beings, you are a person of immeasurable worth. God has given you awesome abilities that you can never use to the fullest. Yet, you have limitations. There are many things God has not gifted you to do or called you to do or commanded you to do."
"When you fail to love yourself properly, you abuse yourself," Mickey cautions.
You attend every committee meeting, mediate every church conflict, attempt to dispel apathy and despair, try to fix everything that's broken and save everybody who's lost.
You never say no when people ask you to do something -- even when it's something they should do themselves or something that doesn't even need to be done.
You exhaust yourself working far too many hours a week and then you complain -- or maybe brag -- about it. You seldom find time to take a day off.
Before long, you look up and see fifty Frisbees in the air. Huffing and puffing, you run yourself to death, chasing to catch every one, even though you are not sure which Frisbees, if any, God is pitching to you.
Harried by the never-ending demands and overlapping expectations, you feel exhausted, powerless, underappreciated, confused, hopeless, resentful, cynical, and angry. You are convinced that you have failed. You wonder why you ever thought God had called you to ordained ministry.
In a word, you are burned out. The problem: You haven't been loving yourself properly.
Mickey goes on to say that when we think more highly of ourselves than we should, or when we don't think as highly of ourselves as we should, the end result is the same: We not only abuse ourselves, we abuse our congregations and especially our families.
When we take seriously that God loves us just the way we are -- with our strengths and weaknesses, our potentials and our limitations -- we are able to love ourselves. Consequently, we accept the humanity of others and love them just as they are.
With this kind of love in our minds and hearts, we have good news to share with a world eager to hear it.
Like the Labrador that Chris watched fetch Frisbees for his master, we experience joy as we serve our Master. When we accept God's love and love ourselves, we communicate God's love and people receive it joyfully.
Dr. Boyce A. Bowdon, a United Methodist minister and writer, is author of several books, including "A Child Friendly Church."
Chris told us that for several years he has felt God calling him to ordained ministry.
He captured my attention when he said: "My mission is to be God's Frisbee® dog." What did he mean by that? He explained with this story:
"There is a park that I go to from time to time to read, play guitar, think, and reflect. While enjoying a fantastic book one day, I began to notice a beautiful black Labrador retriever.
"The lab was excited about something, and I soon figured out why. The owner was nearby and he pulled out a Frisbee® and proceeded to launch it into the air. The dog became incredibly excited. I watched in amazement as he would chase this Frisbee® nearly thirty yards out. He would effortlessly jump into the air and catch the Frisbee®. I could hear the chomp cut through the air like it was only a few feet away.
"Once the dog caught the Frisbee®, he would bring it back to his master, stand very still, and anxiously wait with intense attention, knowing that at any moment the Frisbee® would fly again. His master would proceed to throw the Frisbee® into the air, and the same would happen.
"As I sat there watching this activity, I could not help but notice the sheer joy on the dog's face. He was passionate about this activity, as if this was his single, most important purpose in the world. He looked like he was smiling as he sailed through the air with his stiff ears shaking in the wind. It was as if this was what he was created for.
"As I stood there just watching, I came to this conclusion: I want to be God's Frisbee® dog."
Isn't that a creative way for Chris to describe how he feels as he answers God's call to ministry?
With the passing years, has your assurance of God's call and your passion for ministry faded?
Unfortunately, it has for many clergy. A recent study concludes that four out of ten ministers are "experiencing mild to severe burnout, leaving many so dissatisfied with their present calling that they would quit tomorrow if it were not too costly to do so."
Those of us who have been pastors for a few years understand why clergy are prone to burnout. What we want to know is what we can do to avoid it.
I asked my friend, Dr. Michael (Mickey) Potts -- an ordained minister and a licensed professional counselor in private practice in Edmond, Oklahoma -- how we can minimize the risk of burnout. If anyone knows, he should. In addition to counseling with clergy and their families, he leads workshops on pastoral leadership, and he is married to a United Methodist district superintendent.
So, what advice does Mickey have for minimizing the risk of burnout? He says the key is to take seriously what Jesus commands us to do: love ourselves.
"Loving ourselves may sound easy compared to loving God and loving our neighbors," says Mickey, "but it's not."
He points out that loving ourselves means knowing ourselves, accepting ourselves, respecting ourselves, being true to ourselves, and taking care of ourselves.
"To love yourself you must accept the reality that you are human; you are not God," says Mickey. You must remember that even though you are created in the image of God and even though you have been called to be an agent of God, you are not God.
"Like all other human beings, you are a person of immeasurable worth. God has given you awesome abilities that you can never use to the fullest. Yet, you have limitations. There are many things God has not gifted you to do or called you to do or commanded you to do."
"When you fail to love yourself properly, you abuse yourself," Mickey cautions.
You attend every committee meeting, mediate every church conflict, attempt to dispel apathy and despair, try to fix everything that's broken and save everybody who's lost.
You never say no when people ask you to do something -- even when it's something they should do themselves or something that doesn't even need to be done.
You exhaust yourself working far too many hours a week and then you complain -- or maybe brag -- about it. You seldom find time to take a day off.
Before long, you look up and see fifty Frisbees in the air. Huffing and puffing, you run yourself to death, chasing to catch every one, even though you are not sure which Frisbees, if any, God is pitching to you.
Harried by the never-ending demands and overlapping expectations, you feel exhausted, powerless, underappreciated, confused, hopeless, resentful, cynical, and angry. You are convinced that you have failed. You wonder why you ever thought God had called you to ordained ministry.
In a word, you are burned out. The problem: You haven't been loving yourself properly.
Mickey goes on to say that when we think more highly of ourselves than we should, or when we don't think as highly of ourselves as we should, the end result is the same: We not only abuse ourselves, we abuse our congregations and especially our families.
When we take seriously that God loves us just the way we are -- with our strengths and weaknesses, our potentials and our limitations -- we are able to love ourselves. Consequently, we accept the humanity of others and love them just as they are.
With this kind of love in our minds and hearts, we have good news to share with a world eager to hear it.
Like the Labrador that Chris watched fetch Frisbees for his master, we experience joy as we serve our Master. When we accept God's love and love ourselves, we communicate God's love and people receive it joyfully.
Dr. Boyce A. Bowdon, a United Methodist minister and writer, is author of several books, including "A Child Friendly Church."
