In this blog post, author Donald Miller reflects on a conversation with a friend who is a surgeon. Miller asked the surgeon, “Why do you desire to help so many people?” The surgeon replied, “Because it’s fun…I like helping people because I enjoy it, I’m the opposite of an evangelical.” Miller was speechless for a moment, reflecting later, “I had nothing to say. I was so accustomed to the passive guilt complex so many of us hear week after week and in book after book that I knew he’d have no shortage of evidence that Evangelicals are constantly being made to do good things they don’t really feel like doing.”
Acts highlights joy as a major characteristic of the early church. The followers were passionate and enjoying serving others for Christ, sans guilt trip. Miller then argues, passion is killed by ought-tos. As leaders, are we so suffocated by our to-do list, things we should do, that we realize we’ve gone an entire day without enjoyment in our work? An entire week? Forbid, an entire year passion-less? Do you feel guilty after not completing all of your ought-tos? Do you feel guilty even when you do?
If leaders stepped away from their “ought tos” and began to seek to serve within their skill set and passion, they would be more effective. So the issue seems to come to two questions: are we ministering out of our spiritual gifts, first, and are we being joyful in our work? Because, as we learned this week, our attitudes are contagious.
