Emotional Roller Coaster

If you want to know why you sometimes feel overwhelmed and exhausted, take a moment to reflect on what all pastors experience day in and day out.

At one moment you are preparing a sermon. Then someone interrupts you with a personal problem for which they seek counsel. On the same day, visit the hospital, prepare for the baptism of an infant, plan for a youth retreat, and engage in an ecumenical response to some community event. Then you open the mail and read of some member’s complaint about something you have done or failed to do.

There are highs, lows, boredom, and continual demands. Is it any wonder that you feel emotionally drained at the end of a week? When you engage in this week after week, it takes its toll. The better a pastor you are, the heavier the toll.

NERVE ENDINGS NEED TIME TO HEAL

All these experiences draw on our emotional resources, and nerve endings take a longer time to recuperate than merely physical exertion.

It is important to identify a variety of strategies that fit into various time slots. It may be that you only have a few minutes and just need to learn how to breathe. Another time, in between hospital calls, you may need to avail yourself of fifteen minutes in the hospital chapel. There are times you need to give yourself permission to read a good book or take a walk. Sometimes knowing that you have a regularly scheduled appointment with a spiritual guide may get you through the day.

TAKEN FROM SOON TO BE PUBLISHEd CLERGY EMOTIONAL HEALTH

Send me a note and I will alert you to its publication with a special price to launch this Volume 5  of the nine-volume series Healthy Clergy Make Healthy Congregations. stephenmccutchan@gmail.com