Counselors Reflect on Dangerous Calling by Paul Tripp
A Series to Care for the Care Takers of God’s People
“It is your own daily experience of the rescue of the gospel that gives you a passion for people to experience the same rescue.”Paul Tripp. Page 64
There is so much about the gospel that really grabs my heart. What I love most about the gospel, and serving Christ, is the absolute freedom that this relationship brings. Paul said in Galatians, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Christ has provided freedom on multiple levels.
Ironically, we spend much of our lives trying to figure out how to get people to like us and approve of us and, yet, there is never a guarantee that they ever will. We consistently fail to get a robust and long lasting approval, in part, because the very people we hope will like us are spending much of their time trying to get us to like them. What a fruitless exercise. In fact, this endless quest tends to enslave us.
All the while, we have a God who knows us completely and thoroughly, and by His remarkable grace through Christ, accepts us entirely. The horizontal relationships consume us, but the vertical relationship is already taken care of, and the One who matters most and is the source of life, has already declared us his friends. This makes things very different for us! It sets us free.
Buddha spent his life by teaching people to never cease striving in order to reach fulfillment and acceptance. Jesus tells us, on the other hand, “It is finished.” He proved his words by condescending and coming to our aid, because he knew we were incapable of striving enough to become acceptable. To strive in that fashion is to, again, be enslaved. Through his blood he made it possible for us to be holy and blameless. In him we are fully acceptable (Ephesians 1). Problem solved. He set us free.
The reality is that until we understand the extent of the problem we will not fully appreciate the solution. Yet, when we consider the reality of God’s grace it is then that we are able to experience it in profound and life changing ways. It is this experience from our own sin-bent depravity that is so freeing and takes away the burden we can easily fall prey to that may drive us to lose sight and try to perform for people’s acceptance. But opposite of this self-inflicted thinking the shackles of self and its consistently myopic mindset allows us to relish and enjoy the amazing grace of God. Then, and only then, are we in a position where we are able to embrace an others-focused passion to share about this rescue operation. And it is a natural response to experiencing the fullness of God’s grace.
Paul desired for the Colossians that their hearts may, “be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ…” This is a remarkable longing and one that drove him with passion for people to experience the same thing. He was a man who daily recognized from what he was rescued.
This is what Paul Tripp is saying to us. “It is your own daily experience of the rescue of the gospel that gives you a passion for people to experience the same rescue.” Anything less can be a danger to our heart and our motivation for ministry. Making sure this is true, however, adds authenticity and texture to our calling. It fuels our life, not steals our life.
Please join us each week as we explore Paul David Tripp’s Dangerous Calling. The blog series summary can be found at www.bridgehavencounseling.org/dangerouscalling.
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Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry By Paul David Tripp / Crossway Books & Bibles |