It has come to my attention that my role as youth minister takes on many forms. Some of these forms are glamorous and some are not. Some forms are fun and others not so much. Still other forms come easily to me and some others I have to work on. But this is not a post about what it looks like to be a youth minister or pastor. This is a reflection on what two of those roles say about Christian culture. The two roles are trash collector and firefighter.
The first role of trash collector, more commonly referred to as garbageman, is exactly what you think it is: one who collects or picks up or takes care of trash. As a nation we produce over 250 million tons of garbage (solid waste) each year. Don't worry I haven't been talking to Al Gore, this isn't a save the environment type of post. Just by examining the world for a week, you would probably agree that we throw a lot of stuff away. When something breaks, or gets old, or whatever we throw it out and get a new one. After awhile all that trash starts to pile up. Before long it will start to smell, and we expect someone to take care of it. And someone does, well at least for all our physical trash. But working in ministry, and even before that, I have noticed that people carry around a lot of junk. Broken relationships, disappointment, anxiety, fears, just a lot of hurt. Going through life we pick stuff up, some good, but a lot of bad. I find that most of the time we don't know what to do with all the hurt. There isn't a white bag to put it in, and guys in trucks don't come to take it away. So we carry it, and it piles up, and it starts to smell, until we can't take it anymore, until we are crushed by the weight. So I find that I play the role of garbageman, helping people get rid of the inner-garbage in their lives. I have talked to plenty of people who carry around lots of pain, you wonder how they even walk around. I can't really get rid of the junk, but I can help direct people to the cross where all that trash is abolished by the power of Jesus.
The other role is fireman. Now I realize fireman is not politically correct, but I don't really care. Not really sure how many fires take place across america, or the world, each year but I'm gonna guess that it's a lot. Fires are serious business. Over four thousand people die in house fires every year. Fires may start out small but they spread and grow quickly, often in unpredictable ways. So we send in brave men and women to rescue people from danger and stop the danger from hurting others. But a lot of times there are other fires in our lives that don't get put out. I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but when you work or interact with people there is bound to be friction at some point. Disagreements, differing opinions, misunderstandings, what have you they all create friction. According to Bear Grylls you can use friction to create fire, and friction surely creates fires in relationships with people. Like real fires, if they don't get put out, they will destroy relationships, or at the very least leave them severely hurt and/or disfigured. When unchecked people's anger can grow out of control and people get hurt, bridges get burned. So I play the role of firefighter, putting out fires before people hurt others, or themselves.
I hope one day we can live without these metaphorical garbage men and firefighters. I think these roles reflect some things about how we live our lives as Christians. I believe they are enabling us to live less than we were created for. Lets think about why we need garbage collectors. Obviously we have garbage that needs to be taken care of. But why do we have garbage? We go through life picking up or buying stuff we don't really need with little thought to who will take care of it when we throw it out. Or we just throw things out that could still be of use. We just consume for the sake of it. For whatever reason we are dissatisfied with what we have, and try to replace it with something we will just end up throwing out as well. This attitude transfers directly into our Christian walk. We all get involved with things we shouldn't or pick up habits that are less than beneficial with little thought to the filth it creates in our lives, let alone what to do with it when we finally realize the burden or smell. The problem isn't with what we have, but with us. And what about fires? Granted not every fire is caused by man in the same way garbage is, but a lot are. And when they are, the cause is underestimating or neglecting the danger or power fire has. Is it any different in our relationships? Underestimating or neglecting feelings or people's anger causes things to escalate out of control.
Really it is just a selfish way to live. Doing whatever we want just counting on someone else to take care of the mess, or rescue us if things get out of control. It's selfish and does more damage than good. Both trash collectors and firefighters allow us to just react to problems instead of being proactive and stop them from even happening. What if we took a look at what we had before we start looking for meaning or fulfillment in more things or other places. What if we took more responsibility for how we live and interact with others? What would it look like to take on a recycle type mindset in our christian walk? Maybe I'm on to something, or maybe this is just another musing of a modern-day sasquatch.
No comments:
Post a Comment