Running the Race

A Vocation Unlike Most: A Pastor’s Charge to Fellow Pastors

January 25, 2020 by Peter Dubbelman Leave a Comment

At the beginning of my pastoral career, an elderly pastor shared two key points with me: “Your vocation is unlike most. Your latter years of life can be your most effective ones.” I’m now decades away from this conversation, which proved to be invaluable to me. He unpacked his two key points by way of […] Read More »

“The Mark of a Great Athlete is to Be Bruised Yet Still Conquer”: A Vocation Unlike Most

January 10, 2020 by Peter Dubbelman Leave a Comment

Responding to God’s call to the pastorate is not for the faint of heart. To be a pastor, of course, is a great privilege — for it affords a person the opportunity to work intimately with “the great Shepherd of the sheep.” This vocation, however, is unlike most: Paul understood it to involve struggle, suffering, […] Read More »

The Mark of a Great Athlete and Christian Leader

August 30, 2018 by Peter Dubbelman 3 Comments

Christian leader, bear with all people, even as the Lord bears with you; endure all in love,… Press on in your race … the time needs you (as pilots [of a sailing vessel] needs winds and as a storm tossed sailor needs a harbor) … Be sober as God’s athlete … It is the mark of a great athlete to be bruised, yet still conquer. Read More »

Catch the Wave!

August 15, 2017 by Peter Dubbelman 2 Comments

Has religion left you tired? Harassed and helpless? Feeling pushed to the side? God’s for you! Catch his wave to joy, peace … and a life that is sustainable and meaningful. God’s heart, energy, and actions are towards both the marginalized and those who realize they need help. When I cooperate with these actions and realize that only he can make the deciding difference in these areas, life is meaningful and sustainable. As such, my help towards others and even me getting help and working hard, though all important, are more like those who “took off the grave clothes” from Lazarus after Jesus raised him from the dead. As I run my race, do I live with this aforementioned perspective in mind? A surfer knows two key things: (s)he has to “catch the wave”; the wave heads only to the shoreline. Similarly, a sailboat is dead in the water minus wind in its sails; its propelling wind heads in one direction. Read More »

Running the Race

July 6, 2017 by Peter Dubbelman 3 Comments

Only Jesus ran a perfect race. But we must ask ourselves, “Am I growing in grace? Maturing as I journey?” Further, our attitude towards ourselves and others should not be, “Here’s my standard, shape up or ship out.” Contrastingly, God graciously desires to join whosoever in their journey, regardless of what shape they are in or how others value them; he says, “Come, all you who are thirsty … buy wine and milk without money and without cost. … hear me that your soul may live. For the humble, there is both no condemnation in Christ and empowerment from my Spirit to run with passion, peace, and pleasure.” Read More »