What happens when idealism meets reality?
When I was a young college student I felt God calling me to enter the full time ministry, then as a Lutheran Pastor. I had always been religious, went to church faithfully, read the Bible, prayed, did all the stuff you were supposed to do. So when I felt the ministry beckoning, it wasn't a far step to shift college courses toward the Seminary.
One of the reason I wanted to enter the ministry was to make a difference in the church, to help the church become serious about its faith and life, to motivate the "dead and lifeless old folks" into dynamic and vigorous Christians. I wanted to wake the church up and become an exciting place. At 20 years of age I had so much to offer and was so sure that I could change the church and the world.
So entering the minstry and serving churches in California and Albuquerque brought me to reality. The church people were just like me. They had faith. They wanted the church to grow and be strong. The loved the Lord. But like me, as I was starting out in my profession and in my marriage, a lot of things took time and energy.
I soon discovered the reality of Christian life. I worked hard for my church but I also worked hard at home on our house, sought to improve our life by buying a TV, a newer car, better furniture. Soon, energy was needed to make sure we had enough money for the mortgage and the payments we had incurred. Then children came along.
More distractions. Oh, the boys were gifts of God to us, but children take time and emotional energy. I could only leave my wife at home with the kids a couple of nights a week. My conscience knew I should be there to help her.
Priorities shift. Now my mind was filled with the day to day operation of a church, the normal routines and crises of home and family, and the need to have some free time to stay fresh.
Where did my ideals go? Where went the zeal to accomplish great things? Was I a captive to the "stuff" of life? And when your life is so tied up with these things and people - none of which is bad - it becomes easy to seek relief from the stress and strain by waiting for vacation, days, off, time to relax. Suddenly these holiday times and fun activities become more and more important to sort of counter-balance the rest of life.
Again, the ideals became lost.
As I am older, I realize that the ideals are still there, but tempered now with reality. Luckily, I can see where I went wrong. I allowed myself to become so caught up in "urgent" things that the important people and ideals went uncared for. Someone has called it the tyranny of the urgent. And it is a tyranny. It is the urgency of maintaining a life style, of having the acceptable clothes, the better car, the bigger house, the higher income. So now Mom works to bring in enough income because we don't want our kids to want for anything. (Why not, by the way? Who said kids were better with the latest stuff?) As a result, both parents are tired and the kids don't get enough attention and the church calls wanting help for something and you're occupied to help and you feel bad but life seems to be so demanding.
Trapped by reality!
To the older folks, did you have ideals as a young person? What happened? Do you still have them?
If you are a young person, do you have ideals? How will you maintain them in the midst of the pressure to get ahead, to conform, to not rock the boat, to be accepted?
Ideals and reality don't have to be mutually exclusive. Jesus managed to help a lot of people (the urgent) on His way to Jerusalem (the important). Even heading for the cross He was able to spend the time it takes to meet the needs of people, but was never burdened by what we might call overcommitment. In a way, His ideals never go lost in the press of people or other responsibilities.
How about you? What do you think?
Charlie
When I was a young college student I felt God calling me to enter the full time ministry, then as a Lutheran Pastor. I had always been religious, went to church faithfully, read the Bible, prayed, did all the stuff you were supposed to do. So when I felt the ministry beckoning, it wasn't a far step to shift college courses toward the Seminary.
One of the reason I wanted to enter the ministry was to make a difference in the church, to help the church become serious about its faith and life, to motivate the "dead and lifeless old folks" into dynamic and vigorous Christians. I wanted to wake the church up and become an exciting place. At 20 years of age I had so much to offer and was so sure that I could change the church and the world.
So entering the minstry and serving churches in California and Albuquerque brought me to reality. The church people were just like me. They had faith. They wanted the church to grow and be strong. The loved the Lord. But like me, as I was starting out in my profession and in my marriage, a lot of things took time and energy.
I soon discovered the reality of Christian life. I worked hard for my church but I also worked hard at home on our house, sought to improve our life by buying a TV, a newer car, better furniture. Soon, energy was needed to make sure we had enough money for the mortgage and the payments we had incurred. Then children came along.
More distractions. Oh, the boys were gifts of God to us, but children take time and emotional energy. I could only leave my wife at home with the kids a couple of nights a week. My conscience knew I should be there to help her.
Priorities shift. Now my mind was filled with the day to day operation of a church, the normal routines and crises of home and family, and the need to have some free time to stay fresh.
Where did my ideals go? Where went the zeal to accomplish great things? Was I a captive to the "stuff" of life? And when your life is so tied up with these things and people - none of which is bad - it becomes easy to seek relief from the stress and strain by waiting for vacation, days, off, time to relax. Suddenly these holiday times and fun activities become more and more important to sort of counter-balance the rest of life.
Again, the ideals became lost.
As I am older, I realize that the ideals are still there, but tempered now with reality. Luckily, I can see where I went wrong. I allowed myself to become so caught up in "urgent" things that the important people and ideals went uncared for. Someone has called it the tyranny of the urgent. And it is a tyranny. It is the urgency of maintaining a life style, of having the acceptable clothes, the better car, the bigger house, the higher income. So now Mom works to bring in enough income because we don't want our kids to want for anything. (Why not, by the way? Who said kids were better with the latest stuff?) As a result, both parents are tired and the kids don't get enough attention and the church calls wanting help for something and you're occupied to help and you feel bad but life seems to be so demanding.
Trapped by reality!
To the older folks, did you have ideals as a young person? What happened? Do you still have them?
If you are a young person, do you have ideals? How will you maintain them in the midst of the pressure to get ahead, to conform, to not rock the boat, to be accepted?
Ideals and reality don't have to be mutually exclusive. Jesus managed to help a lot of people (the urgent) on His way to Jerusalem (the important). Even heading for the cross He was able to spend the time it takes to meet the needs of people, but was never burdened by what we might call overcommitment. In a way, His ideals never go lost in the press of people or other responsibilities.
How about you? What do you think?
Charlie
Labels: The Ideal vs. the Real
posted by Charlie | 10:27 AM
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