Ministry can be hard. It is taxing emotionally, spiritually, and even physically (you know lock-ins will send you to an early grave). When you work with teenagers you never know when one will show up unannounced. You never know when they will text a deeply personal struggle…and you have to respond. (usually text won’t do to straighten it out) But how hard should we push to allow opportunity for the Gospel to penetrate the lives of our students?

Spurgeon has something to say that young student pastors need to hear.

“People said to me years ago, ‘You will break your body down with preaching ten times a week,’ and the like. Well, if I have done so, I am glad of it. I would do the same again. If I had fifty bodies I would rejoice to break them down in service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You young men that are strong, overcome the wicked one and fight for the Lord while you can. You will never regret doing all that lies in for you for our blessed Lord and Master.”

– Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “For the Sick and Afflicted,” 1876