I believe that God has given me the gift of cynicism. Dictionary.com, that great repository of intelectual data, says this by way of definition:
1. An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others: the public cynicism aroused by governmental scandals.
2. A scornfully or jadedly negative comment or act: "She arrived at a philosophy of her own, all made up of her private notations and cynicisms" (Henry James).
I was at a meeting today that only served to notch up my cynicism a bit more, and a well-intentioned friend, who was himself feeling a bit cynical, said that cynicism could not be a spiritual gift. The spiritual gift, according to my friend, is discernment, and cynicism is what happens when that discernment is perverted in a negative way.
Perhaps....
One of the areas I become most cynical (see definition #1 above) is when I feel like my time is being wasted. Time is such a precious commodity, and it's one I will gladly give to those things I am passionate about (like the people I serve and love so much). But when I find that time is being taken away from me to be given to things I don't believe in or don't care much about well, then, I shift into cynical mode.
Because of this I try to be very sensitive to the time of individuals in the church where I serve. And so I am constantly asking, what is a reasonable amount of time to expect individuals to commit to the building of the Kingdom? On the one hand, I realize that all of our time is to be sacred/holy/Kingdom time, but being the pragmatic midwestern American that I am I cannot help but try to find a number to assign a value as a solution to this equation.
What do you think? How much of a commitment should we expect of ourselves? And what kind of activities count in that time? I really would like to know....
About Me
- Pastor Tom
- Muskegon, Michigan
- I'm an overweight, overworked, overstressed, overstimulated, overcompensated, overly fortunate pastor of an overly generous group of people.
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4 comments:
This could very well be one of those trick questions. If we're going to do anything for the building of God's kingdom, we all know that we should be giving 110% of our time, talent, treasure, and temple, God gave them all to us. Who are we to keep it to ourselves. If we are spending time out in our communities as "Christ followers" doing it because it makes us look good, or because someone will see us and say, "wow, look at so-and-so working for the Lord." Does that really count? If we are going to do anything it must be done with 200% heart, mind, body, and soul. What ever we do, we must do it with the heart of Christ, no matter the time it takes. We do things for the right reasons whether it takes 10 hours or 10 seconds. Do we put a "time" factor on it? When in all real-ness, what is time to God? Now, I'm going to go way out a limb here, hang with me. I'm going to use an analogy with coffee. Dumb maybe, but apparently I don't care.
Now, I like coffee. I like coffee in the morning to give me a boost. We all kmow that's true (cause drs. say so, right?) Well, drink too much coffee and it is more of a hinderance then a help. So you dump it and it's gone. Here and helpful for a moment, but then gone for good. But take the grounds and put them in your plants, gradually it will feed the plant's roots. What is the absorbtion rate? How much time does it take? I don't know, I'm not a botanist, nor do I care to be one. But, we know that it feeds the plant, the plant will grow, and all is well. Must we put a time on our acts? If we are serving with the right attitude, right heart, a love for Jesus, for people, for God and everyone, and everything around us...I don't think we can or should put pressures of "time" on this, but content (if you will). After all, what is time to God?
Yes, yes, yes!!! But then we find those times when we are being taken out of a Kingdom building context, or at least an obviously Kingdom building context, when we are asked to give our time (or perhaps it is actually taken from us) to those things that, as we look at them, don't seem to have any weight of the eternal to them.
I just can't seem to get past a couple of passages of Scripture that deal specifically with time. One says, "For God alone my soul waits in silence." Another one says, "Be still and know that I am God."
Perhaps the struggle for me, ultimatley, is what you say at the end, that there are lots of times when I am "serving" when my attitude of cynicism takes over, keeping me from "the right attitude, right heart, a love for Jesus, for people, for God and everyone, and everything around us."
I think there's a major shift beginning to happen in church culture. We have often rewarded those who spend a lot of time involved in church activities and makes them look like good members.
Now, (I hope) time is being spent engaging people outside of church and building relationships. This will probably be more fun and less likely to be rewarded, but really what church is about.
We often think if it's painful and miserable, we must be on track. If it's fun and totally natural, it must be mean we're wasting time.
I say, learn to "party well". Get barbecueing with your neighbors and friends. Spend less time at church meetings and "activities" that really substiture for the real thing.
If you think about it, Jesus was criticized for partying too much, not attending too many committee meetings.
Let the change begin!
This change is going to be much easier for people of certain generations. For those of us who were inculcated on the "old school" philosophy of "busier is better" our type-A personalities are finding it difficult to find it "okay" withe notion of "partying well." (I love that phrase, btw.)
And so we old dogs need to learn new tricks that are, actually, old tricks. Seems to me, as you said, that Jesus partied well, and I'm fairly confident he never lost a day doing mindless administrative tasks to make his denominational leadership happy.
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