an exhortation

"If you are a servant of the Lord, let me encourage you to please, please, humbly watch that you don't slip into the same error I did. The Lord God jealously desires us for himself. He is the lover of our souls. If we ever put anything before our relationship with Jesus- even our work for Jesus- then we will be ensnared. If you are burned out, stop! Rest! Your lamp needs a constant infilling of the Lord's oil or your light will be snuffed out. Remember that "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it... Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" Isaiah 30:15, 18
- from The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun

Of course, Brother Yun wrote that in reflection of his service to the house-church movement in China in the early 1990's, and he wrote that before thanking God for being imprisoned for the Gospel for the second time, because it gave him opportunity "to suffer for what is right." (1Peter 3:13)

I'm not there yet...