Work, Worldview and Maturity

I am quite behind in items I intend to write about here, but the rush of finals and a cracked screen on my laptop are conspiring against me. :)

I am almost half way through listening to the audio version of How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life , by Peter Robinson, and it is surprisingly good. Whatever you think about Reagan (I like him), this book is compelling and worthwhile for several reasons. First, the author is honest enough to state that as he came to the White House (getting his first real job by fluke as he says) in his early 20’s he was looking for an older man to serve as a role model. We all need such role models, though sometimes people do not want to admit it. The account of this young man trying to define his life, looking for an embodied example of a ‘good life’ reminds me that there are people all around asking this same question. The author did not tell Reagan he had begun watching him as an example. He just watched, thought and discussed with others. Who is watching us without our knowing? What sort of example are we providing? As pastors we should expect to serve as examples to the church (1 Timothy 4:12; Titus 2:7; my previous post mentioned the sore lack of good examples).

The life lessons mentioned in the book so far are really good ones, typically rooted in a Christian worldview. The discussion about working hard and persevering were particularly good. It made me think this would be a good book to give to young men in keeping with the “Month of Man” address I mentioned previously. Robinson discusses the value of work and how we were made for meaningful work (drawing from his conversations with a theologian friend). This idea is so important and contrasts clearly with the spirit of the age which was illustrated in an email I recently received. The email encouraged me to sign up for a certain service which would make me money. It promised to “help you make the income you want without the stress of a job.” Get all you want without the bother of a job! Work is not only a means to an economic end. It is a worthwhile end in itself.
We need to teach once more the biblical idea of work, and it is encouraging to find this concept in a book like this one.

"Month of Man"

This past Monday night I spoke to a group of guys here at Union on the topic of manhood. Some students had organized “The Month of Man” (‘official’ website) for some humorous celebration of manhood and also to call on themselves and others seriously to pursue maturity in manhood. I applaud their efforts and was honored to speak at the event.

You can see the rough notes of my address here as well as a link to the audio. This is not a sermon, but more of a ‘sit down chat’. Somewhere I came across an author saying every young man needs an older man who regularly gets in his face about growing up and becoming a man. That is basically what I have tried to do here.

One of the real needs in the church is for us to encourage, help and challenge our young men to resist the culture’s call to perpetual immaturity and encourage them instead to pursue maturity.

Aging and Maturity

Yesterday I commented on an article by Carl Trueman which criticized infatuation with youth and appearance. Just this morning I read Dorothy Sayers essay “Strong Meat” in her book Creed or Chaos and it addressed this very issue. The entire piece- indeed the whole book- is valuable reading, but here are just a few samples on this topic:

“There is a popular school of thought (or, more strictly, of feeling) which violently resents the operation of Time upon the human spirit. It looks upon age as something between a crime and an insult. Its prophets have banished from their savage vocabulary all such words as adult, mature, experienced, venerable; they know only snarling and sneering epithets, like middle-aged, elderly, stuffy, senile, and decrepit. With these they flagellate that which they themselves are, or must shortly become, as if abuse were an incantation to exorcize the inexorable. Theirs is neither the thoughtless courage that ‘makes mouths at the invisible event’ [Shakespeare] nor
the reasoned courage that foresees the event and endures it; still less is it the ecstatic courage that embraces and subdues the event. It is the vicious and desperate fury of a trapped beast; and it is not a pretty sight.”

“From the relentless reality of age they seek escape into a fantasy of youth – their own or other people’s.”

“Now, children differ in many ways, but they have one thing in common. Peter Pan – if indeed he exists otherwise than in the nostalgic imagination of an adult – is a case for the pathologist. All normal children (however much we discourage them) look forward to growing up.”

Trueman on Pandering to Youthfulness

Carl Trueman has written a good piece on how too often churches and pastors pander to the culture in an immature effort to be Cool” or “hip.” He starts with a humorous discussion of baldness. I encourage you to check it out.

Trueman is really on to something. We need to get over ourselves and get more caught up with God. My generation is really too concerned with appearing young. We need to lead the way in showing that the goal is to grow in wisdom and grace as we age in years- not to follow Peter Pan in a puerile pursuit of being forever young. Idolizing youth is adolescent.