Rather than desiring to do big things for God, perhaps we should just focus on being obedient in the small things and let God worry about the rest. We can be encouraged in this obedience by the example of Joseph.

Our culture wants to tell us that it is OK to walk away from something that was vowed. In our society, we are no longer astonished by how often marriage vows are broken, even among church leaders. We have too much evidence that a pattern of seeing vows as non-binding has crept into the church.

This is, after all, what the word pastor means. A pastor is a shepherd, or at least, is supposed to be a shepherd. Shepherds care for their flock, not just as a group, but as individuals.