Get Your Pretense On!

126 • Get Your Pretense On!

Persevere through the Difficulties of Representation To represent another is difficult, filled with challenges and stress. When you have been given a job to do, it is important to be aware that the fulfillment of the task will often not be easy. There will be inward irritations, the difficulties of conscience, conviction, and character. Everyone sometimes struggles with the confidence of conscience : What do you do when you reach a crisis of conscience in representing your sender? “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith ” (1 Tim. 1.5). Being asked to do something that is difficult or costly can easily grate against your conscience, like when you do not feel good about doing what is demanded of you. Persistent doubt in your ability can create inaction, and not feeling like you can do it can discourage you. What about the clarity of conviction : What do you do when your own personal belief system conflicts with what your sender wants you to do? We struggle sometimes knowing what it is precisely that God wants us to do. What do you do when everybody is advising you on a course of action and nothing seems clear? To obey God’s call means that you must be fully convinced yourself of what he is calling you to be and do. Scripture study, pastoral counseling, prayer, spiritual director and mentor input, and circumstances are all things that God can and will use to provide you direction on where he wants you to go. (One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind [italics mine], Rom. 14.5). Finally, we must also face the challenge of our developing character : How does one’s character shape and affect the kind of representation that you offer to your sender? Paul instructed Timothy in 2 Timothy