Catcher in the Rye and Beginnings.

Wilhelm Stekel: “The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”



I get fired up.   When I talk to my wife about people who I disagree with, I call them "idiots" and their ideas "stupid".   That is just honest self disclosure.

The quote above has stuck with me for years, since the first time I read The Catcher in the Rye in high school.   I related so thoroughly with the immature man.   The world was ignoring the genocide in Darfur, and I wanted a gun, a plane ride, and whoever else was willing to take on a good cause in a country that was desperately in need.   At that point, I barely understood the longing within me to live my life with the mark of a mature man, but it was there.

The world needs changing.   I was talking with a housemate the other day, explaining a bit about myself and what I believe, and the topic turned to right and wrong.   She hates the emphasis of religion on right and wrong, and I can relate to her sentiment.   Yet, at the same time, I cannot ignore right and wrong, or walk away from it, and that is because there are things in this world that are not right.

I wanted her to know that I don't believe God is alright with poverty, genocide, physical and emotional abuse - and I certainly don't believe God is behind those things, causing them to happen.   The idea that when we suffer, God must be trying to teach us something is not comforting, and it is responsible for many broken relationships and shattered faiths.

That doesn't mean that I think God is flying blind, or that He is without plan.   I think His plan looks different than this, and I think the Old and New Testament relay a common narrative of a God who chooses to engage and invite people into redemption, for themselves, their community, and the world as a whole.   That message, every time I retell it to myself or someone else, revives my soul.

I get excited, and I dream up solutions to the world's problems.   I kick around ideas, and I think about how I might partner with God in the redemptive cure.   I tell people.   I enlist help.   I make my case.

And, I'm finding that at times my excitement to "let His will be done" leads me to step right over people.   I allow it to step all over me at times as well - I can remember working 40+ hours while going to school full time.   I was paid to work 15 hours a week, but I chose to sacrifice myself to see God's will done in their lives - and I burned out.

But, I'm learning to trust these days that slowing down is okay.   I'm learning to look, instead, for where God's kingdom is already coming (with or without me), and to ask how I can join in.   I'm choosing to listen more than I teach, and to encourage more than I challenge. 

Perhaps an hour in my front yard is better for the kingdom of God than twenty spent writing a sermon.   Maybe knowing 20 people's hopes and dreams is better than speaking to thousands at a revival.

So here comes the big experiment: to live humbly for the kingdom of God, rather than die nobly for it.

For me, there is a lot to explore - and this blog can serve as an outlet for me and the people who have chosen to live with us in the fledgling intentional community we call The Gladstone Community. 

So, be welcome, and if you want, learn to live humbly for the kingdom along with me.

- Andrew