Jesus’ antidote to this over-developed self-consciousness is to reject titles and seek lowly places. When we live with an entitlement for recognition, we give our effort exalting ourselves over others so we will appear great. Jesus’ medicine for this tendency is brotherhood. He told his disciples, “You all are brothers,” undercutting their hierarchy, games and socio-political competitions.
If we are all brothers and sisters, I don’t need to focus my attention or energy on becoming greater than anyone. We are family because of our shared connection to the Father, not because of pious performance. To make sonship and daughterhood the core of our identity is to become humble, because it refuses self-made markers of identity. Pride makes idols of the self, making us in our own false image. Humility finds identity in God, accepting that we are made by God, not ourselves.
Humility is difficult to develop, because it requires a level of self-forgetfulness. To practice humility is to willingly take the low place, to serve without seeking honor, to lead without recognition, to love our brothers without exalting ourselves over them. As long as we are trying to become greater than one another, we cannot ever truly love one another.
The Allure of Somewhere New
Another temptation I face in ministry is to “climb the ladder.” In school, you get “promoted” every year, climbing the ranks as you do the work assigned, and move on to the next class. If you complete college, you spend at least 16 years fully immersed in this pace and rhythm. I carried this pace with me into ministry without realizing it.
I crave the variety and novelty of the classroom. The turnover rate for ministry positions, especially youth ministry, is staggering. I think this is, in part, due to pace. The temptation to always be looking over your shoulder for a better, bigger, more exciting opportunity is a big one. Amid the day-to-day tensions of ministry, it’s easy to be drawn away by the siren song of somewhere new, somewhere better.