When You Lose Your Passion
Typically I am pretty meticulous with my stuff, but recently I lost my glasses. If I am not wearing them, usually there are only a couple of places they might be and they weren’t there. Had I really lost them? Were they gone for good? Or were they just misplaced? In the moment when I needed them, it was quite a conundrum.
When I talk to pastors and the subject of passion comes up, quite often I hear them say something like this, “I think I’ve lost my passion. When I first started, I was so on fire for God. But lately, I just haven’t been feeling it.” It’s so easy to see the sadness in their eyes, or maybe it’s the fatigue and the weariness from the constant push.
The truth is, it’s never just one thing that causes us to lose sight of the passion. It can be the continual push of a lot of little things that build up over time. Things such as:
Ministry that has become routine. It’s become mechanical. You might find yourself becoming weary after many meetings, counseling appointments, planning, hospital visitations, studying for sermons and more, all of which is on top of your everyday life and the needs of your own family. When this happens, it’s easy for ministry to go onto autopilot. Your responses to people and their problems can become rote. Your sermons begin to come out of routine and not revelation. Even your personal time of study can become boring as you read passages you have studied and taught on many times.
You find yourself with emotional wounds that take time to process, time which you never seem to actually have. These wounds can come from betrayal, rejection, harsh criticism and many other things. This can cause a lack of empathy and withdrawal from others. Unaddressed or unprocessed pain cannot be ignored. Sometimes you need safe people and a safe place to talk about these things
Dealing with expectations. When I first started in ministry, I had these thoughts of teaching the word and helping people find God’s plan for their life. I hadn’t planned on being the CEO of a corporation and feeling the weight of every single thing that was happening around me. Those things can easily lead to the thought, “I didn’t sign up for this,” which can lead to discouragement and disillusionment.
Facing fatigue and burn out. Ministry has times where it feels like everything is happening fast and furious, and it feels constant. You find yourself in a state of chronic exhaustion. You may experience persistent tiredness, loss of motivation, or even apathy.
You find yourself struggling with loneliness. You begin to think that there is no one who can understand what you’re going through, so the result is you go in the opposite direction of what you need and you begin to isolate yourself.
You can have a misplaced identity. It is so easy for our identity to become connected to our success in ministry. Attendance, praise, growth, influence. Your self worth becomes tied to these things rather than coming from the acceptance and love of God.
You struggle with a lack of fruit or clear vision. When you don’t see ministry going the way you feel like it should go, you can begin to question your own impact or calling. This lack of vision leads to a loss of direction and motivation. You begin to lose traction in your ministry.
You find yourself in times of moral or spiritual compromise. This can happen when you begin to deal with the struggles of ministry by numbing your pain, through addictions or hidden sin or spiritual drifting. These things can rob you of your passion and your confidence. The weight of living in two worlds can kill your joy and misplace your passion.
You start to lack spiritual growth. It’s so easy to do. You are so busy doing for others that you don’t make time to keep yourself spiritually growing. You may become apathetic and even lose your spiritual appetite, and all of this is happening as you endeavor to feed others.
If you connect with any of these things, you need to know, “YOU ARE NOT ALONE!” At Pastor to Pastor, we talk to pastors all the time who are walking through spiritual deserts, those dry times that we face sometimes in ministry. Let us help you navigate through that season.
Remember how I lost my glasses? It turns out my wife helped me find them. They weren’t lost forever, they had simply been misplaced and hidden away, only to be found later beneath the recliner in my living room.
We want to help you re-find your passion and renew your spiritual calling. Take a look at our resources, attend one of our retreats, schedule an appointment. Invite us in to talk to your board or your leadership. We’re here to help and serve you, because what you do is important, and the world is better when you stay passionately engaged in your calling.
