Real Life Adventures Of A Rez Pastor

 

“reallifeadventuresofarezpastor.”  Yesterday I used that tag on a Facebook post. Two weeks ago a cable had broken on the church’s riding lawnmower and a volunteer here last week took a look at it and told us what we needed to order to be able to repair the mower. The part was ordered and arrived on Monday. Monday evening I watched a 10 minute YouTube video and decided to repair the mower after I finished my run on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning I got to work, encountering two minor hiccups in my situation that differed from the video. They weren’t a big deal to manage, but then came the first significant problem, in that while the new cable was designed to connect like I had seen on the video, the original part on our mower connected in a different way. The second major issue was that the new cable was significantly longer than the original. I improvised solutions to both issues and when Robin went to mow the lawn everything seemed to work and our grass and weeds, which have been growing rapidly this year, were quickly trimmed.

Real life adventures of a rez pastor. The things I share on Facebook, such as the mower repair, or Saturday afternoon, where I had done pruned some shrubs, attempted to repair my laptop, and then improvised a tool to remove a plastic cap from a bathtub drain, are just a part of the story, and truthfully not nearly as connected to being a pastor as to taking care of a house and raising children, things that a great many people also do.

Real life adventures of a rez pastor.  Not so much the week-to-week activities of preaching, planning and leading worship, visiting people in the nursing homes and doing a variety of administrative tasks. Those things are being done by most pastors.

Real life adventures of a rez pastor. The truth is that much of what really falls within that hashtag aren’t the kinds of things where I can share any but the barest of details. The three men I gave a ride to on Monday evening. The two men I stopped to talk with while on my run Tuesday morning. The man calling me Tuesday morning to talk about some things he’s struggling with. The man I had a long conversation with at the post office on Tuesday afternoon. The man on Tuesday evening that we gave a meal to and a safe place to sleep for the night.

Real life adventures of a rez pastor. Some things that can be shared and a lot that can’t, but all joined together in one overarching goal: to point people to Jesus Christ as their Savior and to live with Him as their Lord. The reservation might be a unique setting but the goals I have in mind as I serve here apply anywhere. Wherever it is that you happen to live, may God be glorified as you serve the Lord Jesus in that place.