Recently I met a pastor who has a radio ministry to children. Between that broadcast, the need to answer the correspondence that comes as a result of it, and his ongoing parish ministry, he is working seven days and nights a week. As he was telling me about the great success of his ministry to children, I asked him, "How much time do you spend with your own children?" He replied, "Oh, I don't have time for that, but they have to understand that this is my ministry."

A clergyman's wife asked me a difficult question:

"Can God really bless my husband's ministry?" Then she told me why she asked. He is a church leader with a responsible position, much in demand in leadership circles, and so busy with Christian causes that he has found it "necessary" to move out and live on his own. She is left to cope with the children, raising them herself. She cried as she asked, "Isn't he supposed to be home with us?"

These two conversations, coupled with my own pastoral experience, raised anew for me a concern ...