“No Country for Old Men” (2007) is one of my favorite movies. It combines odd, dry humor with dark, disturbing violence, with each scene offering excellent acting and unforgettable dialogue. Good reviews detail its many fascinating elements. The one that seems relevant for Christian ministry is the character Ed Tom Bell, a rural Texas sheriff portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones. The movie begins with Ed Tom’s voice-over narration of the good old days compared to the present day. He recounts that some sheriffs in the past did not even carry a gun. By contrast, the current scene is hard to assess: “The crime you see now. It’s hard to even take its measure.”
Ed Tom feels this way at the beginning of the movie before he encounters Anton Chigurh, a hired killer whose efficient evil is unprecedented and unstoppable. (Javier Bardem won an Oscar for this role.) Accordingly, by the movie’s end, Ed Tom is even more uncertain of his vocation. He expresses his doubts to his older relative named Ellis. After some homespun banter, Ellis asks Ed Tom why he plans to quit being a sheriff. Ed Tom explains, “I feel overmatched.” Ellis responds with a sober reality check, “You can’t stop what’s coming. It ain’t all waiting on you. That’s vanity.”
Many of us in congregational ministry feel like Ed Tom. We are facing challenges that seem light years away from a simpler time. In general, there is less interest in church attendance. For those who do attend, many seem to want entertainment more than examination and edification. In addition, congregants have busy lives filled with more demands and distractions than ever before. In this strange new world, we might confess, “I feel overmatched.”
If there are times when ministry includes feelings of being overwhelmed and uncertain, one certainly should not be embarrassed or ashamed. Many leaders in Scripture admitted similar distress. At one point in the wilderness, Moses asked God, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all these people on me?” (Numbers 11:11). Elijah also believed he was alone as God’s only faithful servant (1 Kings 19:10). Jeremiah goes a step further, accusing God of tricking him into a ministry marked by the people’s mockery (Jeremiah 20:7). Likewise, Paul recounts being “afflicted in every way” (2 Corinthians 4:8). Even Jesus reached the point where he pleaded with God, “Remove this cup from me, yet not what I want but what you want” (Mark 14:36).
We know that each leader received what we might call a spiritual second wind. They were reminded that God is faithful to empower and sustain in and through ministry’s countless challenges. As Paul put it, “But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Indeed, a few verses later, Paul adds, “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
So, what Ellis told Ed Tom applies to those of us who have responded to the call of Christian leadership, “It ain’t all waiting on you. That’s vanity.” Ellis’s wisdom echoes Paul’s, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Romans 12:3; emphasis added). These words are followed by a reminder of each person’s gifts. We must take courage in our calling and always remember that we do not have all of the gifts and we are not every part of the body. We have a specific gift and a particular role. Let us work and rest in that blessed assurance. “So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:7).
If you re-examined what is most important in ministry, have you sometimes lost sight of it?
Are there things you are neglecting because you are over functioning? Is this an expression of unintentional vanity?
Where do you need to do more and delegate or release more so you can do so?
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