My name is Paul Kuzma; I am a Jesus follower, a son, a husband, a father, an uncle, and a friend. I served over 29 years as a Pastor at one church until I came to my current full-time role as a Board Certified Pastoral Counselor, and the Director of Center for Spiritual Renewal East. I served as a Chaplain at the Simi Valley (CA) Police Department for over 15 years, and am now a Chaplain with the Montgomery County (VA) Sheriff’s Office. I also currently serve as an Emotionally Healthy Discipleship Courses Coach & Director of EHD Course Coaches for Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.
It used to be that when people would ask me to tell them about myself, I would start with the phrase, “Well, I’m a Pastor ….” and then continue on with the other descriptors of what I do. I didn’t realize then that God loves me just for who I am, not for what I do.
In February of 2001, I had a string run in with burnout. It didn’t happen overnight, nor did I come out of it overnight. It was a gradual process on both ends.
One of the things I learned on my journey out of burn out is that who I am is not defined by what I do. It was a painful lesson because a lot of my own self-worth had been to that point derived from what I did with my life.
I have since learned that first and foremost, I am a son of the Living God, Who paid with the life of His own Son, Jesus, the price of my sin. I learned that through all of my sin and brokenness, God never loved me any less. I learned that there is nothing I could ever do to make God love me any more than He already does. Even more poignant is the lesson that there is nothing I can do to make God love me any LESS than He already does!
Those were, and still to this day remain, life-transforming lessons. They are simple, but so deeply profound. When I forget those truths, I get lost, busy, distracted and tired. When I live in them, I remain focused, calm, centered on Jesus and find myself more able to live in the trenches of life on God’s strength when I get tired.
What led me to burnout is a lengthy and complex story. I’ll share that soon on the website.
If the message of Pastor For Life connects with you, or you just need someone to talk to about where you’re at, I’d love to hear from you and connect with you. You can connect with me in the following ways:
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