Remember Who You Are.
Some days I just have to grab myself by the lapels and give myself a good talking-to, because I let this sin-cursed world kick me in the gut and I forget who I am. Here’s what I say to myself:
“Ken, you are a storyteller, you are a poet, you are a writer. You are a Herald of God. You are an Evangel-a good news announcer. You are a direct-souls-to-God-man. You are a shepherd—a Village Parson—no matter where you live or how large your village is.
You are a man who carries with you the fragrance eternal things. You use stories and well-chosen words to stir up good things, weighty things, love and wonder in God.
You are a trail guide into the mountain-heights of God. You are not just an ecclesiastical chair-shuffler—you teach people the catch the wind of the Spirit and sail to places—beautiful, charming places where they have never been before. Places where balmy breezes warm the chill out of their souls.
You guide people to experience wonderful things they have never experienced before, visit places they didn’t know existed, taste and see and smell and feel things that they knew nothing of. You are skilled and gifted to stir up within people longings recovered from their earliest childhood urges. That’s who you are. You are that when you speak and preach and pray and sing and visit and counsel and write and when you stand around after the service and talk to people, when you pray by their bedside, when you stand with open Bible in the pulpit.
Brew a cup of coffee. Put on some good music. Gaze off into the blue sky. Look out over big water. Walk in the woods. Take a drive in the country. Look long on a massive Maple in the full splendor of autumn glory. Ponder the constellations and think for a while about who you are. That is who you are—there is never a reason to be overcome with discouragement when you are devoted to a life calling of such gravity and glory and grandeur.”
