Rodeo Clown

My role as min­is­ter is much like that of rodeo clown. Believe it or not, it takes a lot of train­ing to be a rodeo clown. It is also the role that saves the lives of lots of cow­boys and cow­girls out there. Yes, we are a dis­trac­tion. Some­times we even dress funny (min­is­te­r­ial robes). We are like but not like most other peo­ple. The Apos­tle Paul called him­self “a fool for Christ” and even made ref­er­ence to being the last one in the parade — a role saved for the clown.
We are court jesters, seri­ous come­di­ans, sages and “fools” that some­how pose a dis­trac­tion to all things dan­ger­ous and self-destructive. After all, who is the real fool? Is it the per­son with the painted face and baggy clothes, or the idiot on the bull try­ing to prove some­thing to him­self and his audi­ence?
The clown has to be smarter than the bull, the min­is­ter has to be ahead of the social mon­sters that stomp the life out of peo­ple. The same can be said of the aver­age Chris­t­ian. From our con­fes­sion of faith to our graves, we do not quite fit into the rest of life. We are on the side­lines laugh­ing, while pop­u­lar char­la­tans woo the crowds to their own profit. After all, the crowd pays the fee to get into the show. Peo­ple need­ing enter­tain­ment foot the bills.
I do not know how much it pays to be a rodeo clown. I do know the aver­age min­is­te­r­ial salary. It may not be mas­sive hour for hour, but it is often the best view of the action in the arena. Yes, my min­is­te­r­ial day has begun — just another day of clown­ing around ahead.