I want to make it to the end of my ministry without falling into disqualifying sin. I want to make it to the end of my ministry still loving Jesus, still learning his Word, still committed to my family, still tender-hearted toward the church, still praying for and sharing the Gospel with lost souls, and still wanting to grow in my faith.

“We speak often of the wonder of being married till one of us dies.  It has not been trouble-free.  So we imagine ourselves in our seventies or eighties – when divorce is not only sin, but socially silly – sitting across from each other, perhaps at Old Country Buffet, and smiling at each other’s wrinkled faces, and saying with the deepest gratitude for God’s grace: ‘We made it.’” (John Piper, This Momentary Marriage)

“We made it.”  Three simple words that summarize the dream that one brother in Christ has for his marriage.  I confess that I have a similar dream for my ministry as a pastor.

If you had asked me years ago what my dreams were for my ministry, I imagine that the things that would have made the top of my list (at least in my mind) would have included the souls that I desired to see saved, the numbers of people I hoped would be helped by my ministry of the Word, the churches that would be planted, and a ministry of some obvious breadth.

That was before ministry had made me bleed.

Nowadays I would answer a question like that much differently.  What is my dream for my ministry as a pastor, you ask?  In all honesty, I just want to make it.

I simply want to make it to the end of my ministry still running the race and fighting the good fight of faith (2 Tim 4:7). I want to make it to the end of my ministry without falling into disqualifying sin. I want to make it to the end of my ministry still loving Jesus, still learning his Word, still committed to my family, still tender-hearted toward the church, still praying for and sharing the Gospel with lost souls, and still wanting to grow in my faith.

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