We have all heard of people who raise their children as a single parent, people who have dropped out of high school or college, people who have quit their well-paying job to try the music scene, and people who have abandoned their dog or cat in the woods. Some of us are these people, and some of us know these people. Quitting is so popular today that it’s a wonder anything gets finished.

Too many of us are holding out for management positions, looking for a better spouse than we already have, and switch college majors every time a new career idea catches our fancy. Too often, what we have is never good enough, the grass always looks greener in someone else’s yard, and the ice cream at the mall is always better than the ice cream at home.

Every one of us is tempted by dissatisfaction. We are all looking for a better job, a better car, a better life. Fortunately, some of us have learned that better doesn’t mean something, someone, or somewhere else. Some of us have learned (often by a really bad experience) that better is often found in one’s willingness to finally recognize the amazing and wonderful beauty and adventure of what he or she already has.

For Christian leaders, the challenge is to put away fantasies of greater positions, less pastoral problems, and more respect.

In Matthew’s gospel, there is a woman who is only known as the mother of Zebedee’s sons. And it is interesting to recognize that this woman is mentioned only twice in Matthew’s gospel. The first time she asks Jesus if he will place her two sons on his right and left, when he comes into his kingdom. Jesus responds by telling her that she doesn’t really understand what she is asking (s. 20:20-22). The second time we see her, she is there at the cross when Jesus dies, and on his right and left are two others being crucified (s. 27:50-56). Was this what the mother of these two sons expected to find on Jesus’ right and left?

Often we don’t really know what it is that we are asking for when we seek something different than we have. Too many Christian leaders, me included, live their lives looking for the next parish, appointment, or position, when what is really needed to develop his or her as a spiritually mature Christian leader is the opportunity to stay. Stay through the blessings and the horrors of ministry. Stay through the parties and the pressures, the times of popularity and struggles with congregational members, and stick it out through the easiest and most difficult moments of the pastoral call.

Eugene Peterson says in his book Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness, “Far too many pastors change parishes out of adolescent boredom, not as a consequence of mature wisdom. When this happens, neither pastors nor congregations have access to the conditions that are hospitable to maturity in the faith” (p. 29).

Like the mother of Zebedee’s sons, every one of us is tempted to be placed in positions of honor and prestige. And perhaps, by having our eyes so fixed on future “kingdoms”, we are missing the blessings of where and who we already are, and what we already have.

In His dust,
Johnny

© 2010 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
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