Driving from Greenwood to Ft. Wayne this unseasonably warm Christmas morning was a reminder to me that with the passing of time, things must change. As creatures of habit and comfort, we become so convinced that settling into a home in which we plan on living well into retirement while raising our children or planning the rest of our lives around the security of a single career are noble, if not necessary aspirations. I don't know... perhaps not as many people live their lives in pursuit of this dream as I've convinced myself. However, the culture in much of the states seems to have imagined an idea of the American dream which expects her people to work toward a social level to classify those whom have "made it" and those whom have not. There exists this notion of career, income, school district, etc., etc as identity.
I confess that as hard as I kick against the corporate mindset of modern man, I have often found myself temporarily crippled by these intimidating cultural ideals. After all, I spent six years at a university earning a less than practical degree and have worked almost as many jobs in the six years since graduating. This resume could be quite discouraging for someone recognizing their own worth or contribution to life on this planet reaching only as far as their tenure. The longest of these employments (and the closest I've come to a "career" I suppose) was my three and a half years as youth ministry equipper at center grove presbyterian church. It's kind of humorous since my wife was recently quoting for me from a book she's been reading that the average American will have 14-15 jobs in their lifetime and those jobs will last an average of three and a half years... So there it is, I'm the average American. I've tried so hard my entire life to be anything but average!
Then I began reading Donald Miller's road memoir, Through Painted Deserts. In the introduction, Miller writes about the changing of the seasons, leaving home, and how that which doesn't change, dies. He explains that this is God's way... growth, dying to be reborn and all. Just as the earth and all within it experience seasons and change, so do we experience seasons in life. Change, coincidentally, is not only inevitable, but necessary. Change is growth, growth is life, life is knowing God and learning to love. It reminds me of how we're all becoming new, like when the apostle Paul talks about putting off the old man and putting on the new man and becoming transformed into the likeness of Christ. God alone has no need to change Himself because He was, is and is to come. Yet isn't it interesting that God in perfect nature would wrap himself in human skin, not to evolve or grow Himself, but to make Himself known to us... to come alongside us in our own evolution, showing us the way and changing our very status before his presence. The Creator is the only sustenance for all which continues to change. To evolve is to be in tune with our Creator.
I'm encouraged by this fact that job, home and relationships alone do not alone define us as creatures or decide the worth of our existence. Together, however, all of these factors make their mark on our lives bringing shape and pulling character from the core of our being to reflect the perfection of the Creator in the imperfection of man.
This man is a lover, poet, sinner, husband, artist, son, brother, performer, uncle, shepherd, student, friend, barista, custodian, reader, writer, listener, explorer, observer, in all these a worshiper of Christ. This is my "long-term plan".
At least the one which I hope to follow.
