Driven, or Faithful?
For the last 15 years or so, I've been wrestling with this concept: What is the difference between being driven (usually used in the negative to describe over-achiever, type A, work-a-holic, etc.) and being faithful? As a Christ-follower, my desire is to be like Him. My goal in life is to act as He does...to allow Him to live through me. So was Jesus driven? I mean, He obviously worked long hours and never settled on second best. He did everything He did with His whole heart and energy behind it. When asked about the greatest commandment (recorded in Matthew 22:36-40), He talked about loving God with everything we have. No half-heartedness here.
But by the same token, He knew when to get away; He knew when to rest; He knew when to pray. In a word, Jesus was faithful.
So how does one live out a life of faithfulness without being "driven?" How does one walk that balance? How does one know when to "with all your heart, soul, mind" kinda stuff and when to "he left them and went up on the mountain" kinda stuff?
In order to be faithful, it seems that there must be some order of "driven-ness" but that is also a great place of danger.
Maybe that's what Jesus was talking about when He said "the road to life is a narrow road..."
Maybe that's what Jesus was talking about when He said "the road to life is a narrow road..."
10 comments:
Brett, I too struggle with what it means to be faithful to my Lord, to my family, to my call, and to my church.
One thing that has been heavy on my heart is the inward transformation (vs the outward "whitewashed tombs"). I don't want the changes that are made in me to be outward... so that the church, the family can see how wonderful "I" am.
I want to change inwardly, becoming more like Jesus. And I am beginning to reconize the difference.
I'm too lazy to be driven!
Do you have to be driven in all aspects of your life? How about driven in some but passionate about others? Is that one in the same??
Anonymous,
Good question! I think that I am driven in some, lazy in others, and passionate in most. Does that make sense?
Howdy Brett.
I've always believed that healthy living--and healthy discipleship, for that matter--is more about counterbalance than it is about balance. In other words, most characteristics, even the good ones, require a counterbalancing characteristic that prevents the initial characteristic from becoming too heavy.
All of which is to say that I believe that good disciples (and good pastoral leaders) must be driven people--driven by their desire to be obedient to their Lord; driven by their desire to give their very best to his church; driven by their passion for the Gospel and its proclamation; etc..
But drivenness requires a counterbalance, lest it will consume us and the people around us. That counterbalance might be any one of a number of things. Whatever it is, however, it must result in a willingness to sit still with regularity; a willingness to leave things unfinished and imperfect for a while; a willingness to minister by our absence as much as we minister by our presence.
I guess what I am really describing here is nothing other than authentic humility. Drivenness, counterbalanced by genuine humility, can become a Christ-honoring passion. Drivenness without genuine humility, however, usually has more to do with pathological ego needs than it does with the furthering of the Kingdom.
What Eric said...right on the money. I was so driven in my ministry that it nearly killed me. I had busyness mixed up with faithfulness and I realized that I was working for the approval of my congregation rather than that of God. Thanks for keeping this in our hearts and minds.
I agree with Randy... who was agreeing with Eric!
Yeah...what they said.
Life for me is all about balance. With an illness like depression, I have to be VERY careful to keep things balanced in all areas of my life, including taking time for just me. Jesus took time away from everything to recenter himself on God and to make sure that his true focus was on the father. When I forget about myself and my faith in the equation of life, I quickly get out of balance and life begins to fall apart. If I overwork myself for the kingdom of God, then I eventually lose myself and all the love and passion He has given me for ministry. Then, what good am I to the Kingdom? Yes... it's a counter-balancing act, and frankly, it's a tough act to accomplish most of the time, at least for me.
I think a key part of the struggle is that as ministers, we become so obsessed with what we are doing that we are no longer concerned with equipping others to help in the work of the Kingdom.
A huge part of Jesus' drivenness was focused on equipping those oddball disciples to partner with Him in ministry and carry on His work after He left them. If we are only concerned about how much we accomplish in the 40 (or 50, or 60...) hours a week that we put into our jobs, we can easily forget that those people in the pews have gifts and callings of their own that we need to elicit and encourage. To not do that is to assume a "Lone Ranger" identity, except without the benefit of any Tontos.
And one thing that really spoke to me this past week as I was on hiatus: Even when Jesus was doing the essence of His calling...bearing the weight of our sins on His shoulders...He let Simon of Cyrene carry it for a while too.
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