Transcript
Scott Anderson: Paul, you mentioned in the book that there are some leading indicators that spiritual blindness might be occurring or happening in the life of the pastor or the ministry leader. And one of those themes that can function as a mechanism of spiritual blindness is when we let our ministry define our identity. Talk a little bit about what you mean by that, about our identity being found vertically versus horizontally.
The Perfect Mirror of God's Word
Paul Tripp: I like the metaphor in scripture. I find very helpful of the word of God being this perfect mirror that I can look into and see myself as I actually am. What we tend to look into is carnival mirrors. They show me me, but they show me me with distortion, like the carnival mirror at the fair where I don't have a three-foot long neck. I'm seeing myself and I see myself with distortion, and this identity thing in ministry is one of those carnival mirrors.
And here's where you see something that is a normal human struggle intensified by ministry because what is the normal human struggle is I look for identity horizontally, when I was hardwired by God to get it vertically. So I look for something in creation to define who I am, whether that's a marriage or my work or my athletic body or whatever that is.
And so, ministry powerfully provides that. I'm a knowledgeable public person. I'm a carrier of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of those things provide a sense of identity that is marvelously distorted because I am not something because I'm in ministry.
I Am Something Because I Am in Christ
Can I say this more powerfully? I'm something because I'm in Christ, bottom line. And when I need ministry to be something, I've forsaken the gospel in the way that I'm living. How can I forsake the gospel while being a minister of the gospel? It can't work.
But it happened to me. I remember one of the first conversations I had, critical conversations with somebody in my young church that I had planted and they said, "You think because you're a pastor, your job is to be an expert on everything." He was right. It was "I had to be the smartest, I had to be the best, I had to be the _____" because ministry was defining me and it's a mess. It just can never work.
Scott: You mentioned faith can become our professional calling and how really horrible that is and yet, how do you talk to a pastor? I mean, being a pastor is his job, it's his livelihood. How does a pastor walk that line?
A Devotional Interlude in Sermon Preparation
Paul: Now, one of the places where I've talked about this very specifically is I believe when a pastor is preparing a sermon, for every sermon prepared, there ought to be a devotional interlude where I stop and I say, "God, reveal to me what of me You want to expose by this passage, what of You I need to see that I'm not seeing. I'm stopping, I'm pushing this through me because I'm telling myself I'm not this person who's totally okay. And the reason I'm in ministry is because I am okay and I'm going to give this to people who are obviously not okay."
It's once again, telling myself it is impossible for me to preach anything that I don't desperately need myself and that that devotional interlude is an absolute habit, commitment for me. I think it's very, very important that I always stop and I do that in my preparation.
