I was just told, again, that
1. wanting to "do something" with life was a pernicious form of pride,
and that
2. the best way to serve Christ is to sacrifice all ambitions or dreams.
It's all about sacrifice, this person said. Serving. Suffering. Especially for women, like me. We have to sacrifice everything to serve our home. This is our God-given ministry.
It's hard to refute these arguments from pastors and fellow Christians. There is scriptural truth in what they say. Yes, life is about service. Life is about "take up your cross and follow me." It's about suffering and death. And yes, moms are called to be "keepers at home." But suffering and death and sacrifice and stuck-at-home-ness is not the POINT of life.
Sacrifice isn't something you put on like a sweater or a motto. It isn't something you seek out with a divining rod. Sacrifice will find you; you won't be able to avoid it. But sacrifice will only come when you are in hard pursuit of something else. Think of Christ, our ultimate example, he didn't say, "I'll go to earth so that I can suffer. Won't that make me a better person." He came to earth to obey his Father and redeem his people. Sacrifice found him. Suffering came to him because he was in pursuit, and he wouldn't give up.
But we mortals, or at least, we American mortals, we get confused. We start pursuing something big or hard or important, something we feel God wants us to do, and then the suffering comes. Instead of rejoicing, like I Peter or James would have us, "Yes! This suffering is here to refine me! to purify and chasten and test and strengthen me!" instead of that, we think: "The suffering is here, now it is my time to sacrifice, like Christ. I hereby lay down my goal/ambition/dream/pursuit. That is the point of life: to be like Christ and sacrifice."
And THEN, with our dream/goal/ambition properly and spiritually put to the death, we stop pursuing. We settle down into a suburban routine because life is about sacrifice, and we shouldn't want anything more. To pursue something more, now that would be pride. Selfish ambition.
But that's not what Christ did. Christ never lost sight of his mission. Not once. Not when He was threatened with stoning. Not when He was beaten. Not when He was accused of insanity or gluttony or drunkenness. Not when He was homeless or hungry or even when He was the only one pursuing the goal. Christ suffered more than any man, because He pursued more than any man. And he did not quit suffering or pursuing until the goal was achieved.
Because it is relevant to my own pursuit, I've been reading a lot about art and creativity lately. The funny thing is, the secular authors I've read on the topic (most notably Steven Pressfield and Julia Cameron), these authors understand that suffering must come to those who pursue, and that the point of suffering (at least for mortals) is to refine us, so that the pursuit can continue with greater purity and passion. These authors even go so far as to realize that the act of pursuit/suffering/perseverance is a spiritual act.
But like I said, those are secular authors, and it's hard to combat prevalent Christian thought with secular books. So this morning, after being informed again of the inherent pride of ambition, I was discouraged to the point of "laying my Isaac on the altar" (another handy story that's often referenced for the sort of sacrifice we must make)--this morning, by sovereign design, I stumbled across this sermon delivered over a year ago on the opposite end of the country. It's a sermon about cynicism and ambition and stories, and I desperately needed to hear it. Maybe you do, too.
The speaker is Donald Miller of Blue Like Jazz, and he delivered this sermon to Imago Dei Community, a church that (from what little I can see on the website) knows a thing or two about pursuit: of Christlikeness, of social justice, and of art.
Posted by stephanie at March 18, 2008 11:00 AM | TrackBack