We did a little exercise at the police and fire chaplain academy. We were asked to write the 5 following words, 'spouse’, ‘ministry’, ‘children’, ‘God’, and ‘career’, and put them in order of priority. The order may differ with each person but in a room full of chaplains, many of whom were also clergy, the answer for number 1 was obvious: ‘God.’ I had to think about that answer though.
God is invisible, intangible, and inaudible, and as a result, many feel free to interpret the commands God gives for the ordering of our lives in the way they want to. This creates for us a god in our own image; a God who is a far cry from that respect demanding Divine Authority who from His own vantage point teaches us what is right, demands that we shun what is wrong, and holds us accountable for our actions. It is very easy to loudly proclaim such a self-made God as having ultimate priority in our lives. Doing so, we become the master, the foreman, and the servant of our lives. Whether you are a single person, married, divorced, working, retired, handicapped, poor, rich, what would you put as first in your life? Each of us can only answer for themselves but I will share my thoughts and my reasoning with you. As a result of placing God in preferential list, I have seen people excusing themselves from their domestic responsibilities because of their spiritual responsibilities. I personally consider that God is not an outside element of our lives separate from our everyday reality. I do not consider that His service comes in conflict with our domestic responsibilities. God is the element of our lives and attention to His service should not be solely understood within the realm of spiritual activities. Rather, service for God should primarily be acted through our faithfulness to our daily domestic activities, such as caring for our families. As such, I put my wife in first place. If she is well cared-for and happy, the children are also well-taken care of and happy, which in turn gives me more time for ministry. Whereas my ministry/career is important to me, it does not trump my first responsibility to my family which is my God service. So in my book, God comes first, but not in preferential order. I tend to His service through the care of all the others, including that of my community. WHAT IS THE ORDER OF YOUR LIFE?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
If you appreciate these articles, support their upcoming publication in a book called, "REFLECTIONS OF A FIRE CHAPLAIN"
|