Maybe it’s your current job. Maybe it’s one you had in the past. What made it so difficult and what did you learn about yourself? How did your faith help you through the hard time?
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Luther said that pastoral ministry is like herding cats, and I would agree. During college, I worked one semester loading trailers for UPS in the wee hours of the morning, by far the most physically demanding job I had. By the toughest job I have ever loved is parenting. God allows us to be a created co-creators of new human beings along with Him. So much effort, so much risk, so great rewards.
On my way to Seminary I was stopped at the Canadian border by a guard who was obviously having a bad day. After several questions he asked where I was going. I told him Dubuque Iowa. He wanted to know what was in Dubuque; I told him I was going to seminary. He wanted to know what the H—was a seminary and I told him I was going to study to be a pastor. He then asked what I did in Alaska. I told him I worked at a teen center in Nome, and juvenile corrections in south central Alaska. He smirked and commented that going from juvenile corrections to being a pastor was a big switch. I corrected him and noted he had obviously not been in many Lutheran congregations. At that point he let me through the border. To this day the similarity between working in juvenile corrections and being a Lutheran pastor astounds me. The issues are similar but I had more authority in corrections.