Introduction
If humans experience joy and bliss in life, they will never succeed in development. Only the presence of opposites allows one to compare, draw conclusions, and choose something for oneself, contributing to the soul’s development. Suffering, the opposite of happiness and joy, pushes the soul to the eternal search for these positive states and thus contributes to its advancement.
Main Body
Often, ministry leaders devote all their attention to other people while forgetting about their state (The Gospel Coalition, 2015). Nevertheless, progress and self-reflection are significant to ministry leaders as they provide the ability to move forward.
The sweetness of existence and pleasure dazzle the soul, but peace and the absence of suffering are equal to stagnation. It manifests in a lack of acquisition of new qualities, which already amounts to degradation (The Gospel Coalition, 2015). The ministry leader must demonstrate by example the soul’s striving from wrong to good. Without suffering, the soul will not know where to go, what to strive for, how to evolve, and what energies are preferable. Moreover, when the soul goes through suffering, it learns about the world, people, and their relationships, and it evolves through this learning. Thus, it is a mechanism for nurturing and acquiring the highest human qualities.
Spiritual practices are no less important in the life of a ministerial leader. Sometimes, when things do not go according to plan and disappointments come into one’s life, one loses faith in oneself and in any potential outcome (The Gospel Coalition, 2015). Failure or difficulty is often associated with a loss of hope. However, the heart of spiritual practices is the expectation of good things to come.
Conclusion
While much hope resides in the mind, faith originates in the heart and soul. It cannot be explained by reason or logic or understood without proper reflection. In difficult times, ministry leaders tend to drift away from positivity and move from a state of abundance to a state of absence (The Gospel Coalition, 2015). However, spiritual practices are a tool to help replenish abundance in the heart and spirit, not just in the mind.
References
The Gospel Coalition. (2015). How to handle discouragement in ministry [Video]. YouTube. Web.