The morning after pill?

Have you ever had one of those nights that you just needed to forget?  Either you said something or did something that you knew you shouldn't have.    Many times in ministry we come home from church and wish we would have said something different or not said something.  We held back in our message or were wrong for preaching at that one person that's always the trouble maker.   Or even more we feel that everybody hates us nobody respects us, and nobody has bought into the vision we have cast. So many times that affects our ministry for the rest of the week!   So why can’t there be a pill to swallow to end the hurt that we have caused on others or ourselves?  To forget the negative thoughts in our head, and just Move on.  

Well there is it’s called swallowing your pride and moving on!    It’s not about YOU!  I think so many times in ministry we focus on what we think, or how we did.   When really we have just tried to limit God, God is big enough to use a BIG stupid guy like me in a powerful way.  If we have swallowed our pride the morning after and spent time in prayer then forget it.  As pastors we have focused so much attention on how many kids in my ministry were in attendance or if the experiment that we have worked on all week actually worked that we have taken the emphasis on God showing up in us.  

I have been pushing my leaders in realizing that in the outreach ministry we do on Wednesday nights who cares how many kids peed their pants or how bad they smelled like cat pee, or how many fights broke out.   We win if our kids were in a safe place (which they don't have at home), they had fun, they saw Jesus in us and in our lesson and they made friends; if we accomplished this among everything else that happened that night then we won.  So the next time you have the morning after blues, suck it up swallow you pride and pray for the situations.  Look back and reflect on that days happenings, even if you had a bad service, outing or event- you still probably WON!