It’s incredible what a short visit home will reveal to you about yourself. I’ve been gone from Manitoba for the past year and a bit (except for a Christmas visit) and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with friends and family. But as I’ve already alluded to, it’s interesting how a return such as this can serve as a litmus test for how I’ve changed in the last year.
The context that revealed something of myself to me was a party at my brother’s place this Sunday past when my brother and I got into a highly philosophical discussion about how God could possibly intervene into the natural order (a topic to be addressed here another time, perhaps). The interesting part was how the conversation in the place stood still and everyone tuned in to our conversation. Tony protested all of this attention, insisting that we were not trying to hijack the party with our philosophical-talk.
Looking around the room, there were some who were genuinely interested, some who were ambivalent, and some who were bored by the topic. Of those who fell into the latter category, they were either not terribly bored, or they didn’t feel socially comfortable with telling us exactly what they wanted: for us to get off of our hobby-horse and shut up.
I looked around the room, and I saw some bright, gifted and highly creative people who I have tremendous respect for. I would assume that they could get in to talking about a topic that would bore me just as much as I had bored them. And here’s the crux of it all: do we all operate like this?
Do we all have an interest; an overriding passion that we believe that, if everyone could see what we see, would make the world the place that it should be? Isn’t that just egoism? How do I prevent faith in Jesus from becoming precisely that? (I know some would say that it inherently is that, but I do not believe so.)
Questions, questions…
Often it seems that we choose passions, or that God chooses our passions, because they are unique, or undervalued by others. Why else would I trumpet Star Trek so much? Or why do I get so worked up about the gospel of excellence? (I use the small “g” *very* deliberately)
As long as we’re committed to the same Kingdom I think it’s quite good to be concerned about particular parts of it. The body analogy for instance.
The problem seems to be when people do this to the exclusion of all other stuff. The “my gift is X, so I don’t do Y.”
And also when we claim exclusive knowledge of our passion. The “my gift is X, so you need to do X like me.”
Good thoughts Cam. You’re much more constructive than I am. :)
It’s mostly regurgitated Regent stuff. I plan on spewing it for a while. :)