Skip to main content

Something to Strive Towards

Something I think we often neglect is having an ideal to strive towards. We get wrapped up in the very real limitations, problems, and troubles of our world and adopt a very pragmatic attitude towards life. We focus on what we can do and how to simply keep things from getting worse. We then often dismiss those who put forward an ideal as idealists or naïve.

There is nothing wrong with being pragmatic. We need to be aware of the gifts God has given us and the resources we have been blessed with. We need to be humble enough to realize that we cannot do everything we want and can do nothing perfectly. It is good to realize that unbridled idealism is unrealistic and ultimately disappointing.

However, pure pragmatism simply keeps one afloat. Without an ideal to strive towards, a standard to reach for, we don't grow. If there is no vision or goal we tend to be aimless.

As Christians we are called both to be realistic in our dealings with the world and to strive for the ideal that is Christ. We are both called to be "as crafty as serpents and as innocent as doves" as well as to be "perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." We are called to be smart, wise, and understanding of both our own sinfulness as well as the sinfulness of the world. We are also called to strive to be like Jesus in all things.

It is in this tension that we must make our home. Too often I think we lean one way at the expense of the other. We either are too pragmatic and scoff at the ideals presented by Christ, or we expect the ideal to be reality while ignoring the grim situation our world is in. We need both.

We need to expect integrity, wisdom, faithfulness, and holiness from our leaders. We also need to realize that no leader is perfect and all fall short of God's glory. We should desire our churches to proclaim the truth, serve the poor, reach the lost, and worship in the Spirit. We should also recognize that the church is made up of sinners and is still growing more like Jesus. 

We need to strive towards Jesus while recognizing that we need Jesus to even take a step. We need the ideal and the realism. Have a vision that pushes you to strive towards Jesus all the while depending on Jesus to help us take each and every step.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, the day that we are supposed to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. It is a time of family reunions, football, and turkey eating. I sincerely pray that each and every one of you has a good day today. I'll admit that being thankful has not been easy for me this year. As pretty much all of you know, my mother passed away December of last year. Though she had been in the hospital for months, we were not expecting it. In fact I was sure she would be finally able to come home within a matter of weeks. Instead she peacefully passed on into the arms of Jesus, whom she loved more dearly than anyone else. As you can imagine, the entire family was heart broken. After what can easily be described as the worst Christmas ever, I returned to home to Illinois. It was here that I finally broke down. I spent the next months doing everything except being thankful. I cursed God, wept, screamed, begged to have her back, and was generally not the nicest person to be...
3 comments
Read more

Proverbs, Wisdom

Wisdom is an essential part of living a godly life. The ability to make good judgments and identify potentially sinful situations are skills all Christians should have. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes that it is the duty of parents and older Christians to pass on these skills and train younger generations in wisdom. The book of Proverbs is a book all about wisdom. The various authors of the book are trying to pass on the things they have learned to a younger generation. They want all that come after them to know that true wisdom comes from God. Background Like the book of Psalms, the book of Proverbs is a collection of various sayings and proverbs from many different people. The primary author we associate the book with is King Solomon, who wrote the most out of any single author, but he is just one of several writers. It is a very interesting book in this regard. The book of Proverbs can be tricky because it isn't always consistent in how the text flows together. Some...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Theology?

Greetings all! For the first true post I have decided to cover what will be one of the defining aspects of this blog; theology. I know that when I was growing up theology wasn't a word that was used in the churches I attended. In fact I don't recall ever hearing the word until I was in high school, and even then it was used negatively like theology was a bad thing. Theology is inseparable from Bible study, Christian living, and being a disciple of Jesus in general. It is an indispensable part of being a Christian. The thing is we haven't always treated it that way. We have allowed our theology to fall by the wayside, believing it to be useless or not appropriate. So what is theology exactly, and why is it so important? What is Theology? The word theology simply means "the study of God." The goal of theology is to reveal who God is, and when we know God we also come to know ourselves, sin, the world, and so on. What we've done in the past (and this may ju...
1 comment
Read more