Wise Counsel to Those Working Hard for Jesus

Jack Miller writes to a young missionary in Uganda--

Just a few quick thoughts for you, dear brother.

Remember first that I love you and keep right on loving you. We all have you in our hearts. Not because of your faithful work--which truly is wonderful--but because you belong to us in Jesus. You are first His work, and we praise Him for that.

My second thought is to make sure you are enjoying yourself and not taking your work too seriously. You don't have anything to prove to us or the world. The work is finished at Calvary, and that work alone has unlimited meaning and value. Keep your focus there. And then read [novelist] Robert Ludlum and/or go on vacation.

My third thought is help others relax and enjoy the work. . . .

Fourth, major in giving thanks for what has been accomplished and don't spend more than one-half hour looking at your sins. Keep praise constant. Imagine, in a little over two years a green mission has fielded a whole new team in Uganda and is now fielding another in Ireland. Amazing, really!

--Jack Miller, The Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters from Jack Miller (P&R 2004), 43-44

Thanks to our brother Drew Hunter for alerting us to this.