I Almost Left The Ministry. One Boy's Words Kept Me.

Three years ago I sat in my car outside the church compound in Enugu for almost one hour, engine off, just staring at the gate. I had my resignation letter typed on my phone. Burnout had finished me. Watching some colleagues turn ministry into a money game had finished me more.

That same week a young man in my youth group, Chidi, stopped me after service. He did not know what I was planning. He just said, 'Pastor, if you leave, I don't know who I will talk to.' I did not answer him. I drove home and cried like a small boy. That sentence is the only reason I am still here.

The thing about life is, we think we are the ones holding people. Sometimes it is them holding us and we don't even know. I still think about leaving some mornings. But I have seen things in this work that money cannot buy. Our people say the hand that gives is always above the hand that receives. But nobody talks about how the hand that receives can also steady the giver.

Who is the person keeping you in the thing you almost walked away from?