All of life tends toward comfort. The comfort that a minister fears, or ought to fear, is the comfort of ministry itself. For that reason, few of us persist in ministry's most intrinsic task. Myriad pastoral duties offer escape from the toil of soul-care. Likewise, the prophet-priests of biblical history were often lured away from their assignment. Their task was simple -- to address the spiritual condition of their people.

Right Words are expensive and should be carefully chosen. The writer of Proverbs says: "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances. Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear" (Prov. 25:11-12). The writer goes on to express apt analogies for faithful words, refreshing words, soft words, false words, inviting words and controlled words. Words affect people's lives. Words determine people's actions.

So godly words are means of grace. John Wesley defined the means of grace as "outward signs, words or actions, ordained of God, and appointed for this end, to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men, preventing, justifying or sanctifying grace."6 These ordinary channels have been constant through the history of the church. Pastoral ministry consists of spoken and acted words, offered in the name of Christ.

Eighteen years ago, a woman came to my church office for counseling. She attended my congregation, along with her three children. She wanted me to rubber-stamp what she had already decided to do -- divorce her husband. Her argument was persuasive: He had been maritally unfaithful; he no longer showed any romantic interest in her; he paid little attention to the children; and he misused the family's finances. To add insult to injury, he had a Corvette sitting in the garage which the family could ill afford.

Like thousands of other pastors, I found myself standing between the biblical text and the human text. After hearing the sordid details of the human text, I wanted to blurt out, "Go ahead and divorce the no-good bum. He's not worth your time."

But my first obligation was to the biblical text. "Marriage is to be held in honor," scripture says (Heb. 13:4). "For I hate divorce," God declares (Mal. 2:16). The dissonance between God's Word and the immediate crisis was clear, but we lacked a simple solution. So I stalled for time. I said, "Sue,7 let's give it three weeks. Covenant with me to pray, and let's expect God to work a miracle." Why I designated three weeks, I did not know.

Three weeks later, almost to the day, the couple's oldest son was found to have an aneurysm (a ballooned blood vessel) in his brain. He was a walking time bomb. The first time I met Bob was at his son's hospital bed. The boy's critical condition awakened Bob from his hedonistic coma. On the night before his son was to be taken to a distant hospital specializing in the surgery he needed, I visited the family at their home and prayed with them.