Aspiring ministers: If you can do anything else, do it.

Now I wish young men really felt this before they ever started out to be ministers of the word of God.

Quite a few times in my years in the ministry, young men have came to me all fired up to become ministers, and always I say to them, "Look, fella, if you can do anything else, by all means, do it."

They thought that was very strange.

But what I meant was, in effect this:

If you can't say,
"I have to be a preacher",
and "Woe be unto me if I preach not the Gospel!"
I said "You don't belong in it."

If you don't feel the way the prophet felt, Jeremiah, who once was so discouraged he says, "I'm finished. That's it. No more."

But he said there was a fire in his bones. And after a while he couldn't keep quiet, he had to get up to preach again. You see?

—G.I. Williamson
1984-12-02 - 1 Corinthians #11 - Building The Final Temple - Rev. G. I. Williamson (112809221880) 4:37.