Who wants to be a prophet?

God cannot speak directly to the people. Otherwise, there is no way to differentiate between those who truly believe in His words from those who are afraid and appear to believe. So, God chooses prophets to speak on His behalf to the people.
Being a prophet is both a blessing and an abomination. It is a blessing because a prophet will surely earn a place in heaven, a halo above his head. It is an abomination because he will suffer for the message God sends him to proclaim. People will not listen to him. Worse still, they will persecute him and even kill him because the message from God is too hard to swallow. On the other hand, the prophet cannot withhold the message. Indeed, he constantly lives in such a dilemma. This is what we read of in Jeremiah 20 today. Jeremiah was such a typical prophet caught in such a typical dilemma.
Judah was stubborn. God intended to hand her over to Babylon. Of course, the princes and ministers sought political and military alliance and assistance from neighbouring countries. They did not turn to God for help. Just at this moment, Jeremiah was sent from God to tell Judah not to resist Babylon! Jeremiah made himself extremely unpopular in proclaiming this prophesy. Jeremiah 20 opens with Jeremiah being locked up and beaten up by Pashhur, the priest (Jeremiah 20:1). When Pashhur released Jeremiah the next day, Jeremiah continued to prophesize, even more specifically that Pashhur would die in his exile to Babylon where he would be buried (Jeremiah 20:6).
Did Jeremiah enjoy being a prophet? It seemed not.
O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; every one mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. (Jeremiah 20:7-9).
If Jeremiah proclaimed God's message, he would be fighting against the whole nation. If Jeremiah tried to withhold the unpopular message, he felt burning from within. If being a prophet is such an unthankful mission, who wants to be a prophet?
Our boss is very mean. She summoned Edmund and threatened to issue him a warning letter which would destroy his teaching career unless he resigned voluntarily before the end of April so that she would put up a recruitment advertisement! Granted that Edmund is very weak in managing the classroom in his lessons and his probation has not finished, is he not entitled to submit his resignation before the end of July? Shouldn't the school help him improve his classroom management skills instead of firing him? Can't the school extend his probation for one more year and fire him when he shows no improvement? Is this the proper way to treat a fellow Catholic, whom every colleague deems a diligent and generous man? In my eyes, this is blatant injustice. Unlike me, Edmund is soft and he succumbs. Poor Edmund! He even has not the motivation to present his case to the Supervisor. Like Christ who submitted to the injustice of Pilate quietly, Edmund resigns himself quietly to the unfair treatment from our boss.

My God, pass Your judgment and save him. It is so demoralizing serving under our boss. Strengthen our hearts to serve You. Amen.