Thoughts on the 105
This week we saw our son Samuel graduate from Marine Training Camp and were able to spend a few hours with him before driving him to LAX. He is now stationed in North Carolina (not Florida). We also have been in touch with our other son Jordan, in Louisiana, who has been working underwater regularly (at times, an hour off shore) and it looks like he will continue to be out there for quite a while. And even though this has been ongoing for some time, in a relatively short time our home is minus our two oldest boys.
As Corinne and I were driving back from LAX on the 105, we were talking about the roads our two older boys are on, and how if it were up to us, neither would have chosen such potentially dangerous professions for them. That seems to be the case with most parents I know, including the parents I prayed with this week whose son is in the Army and heading off to Iraq. Very few of us want these kinds of careers for our kids, and if most had their way we would have a society filled with schoolteachers, CPA's and other non-dangerous professions. Our kids also would not move out of state or even the area, let alone leave the country, and that would go for grandchildren as well.
As parents we need to be careful that as we pour our values into our kids, we don't try and make our desires for their future, their own. I used to think it would be great if our boys grew up and were pastors or "in the ministry" like I was, but looking back I wonder how much of that was really just pride and over rating my position over considering what they would want and the reality of their character, because everyone who knows my boys (including me) have no problem understanding why they are where they are now.
The reason I am writing about this is because, there on the 105 Fwy. I again recognized God's incredible design in us as individuals, all the things that drive us to explore, create and experiment. How we all have different things that we are good at or that we have passion for and should pursue. There is also as the danger of settling for something or pursuing a vocation that we really shouldn't. We all know or have heard of teachers who really shouldn't teach. Police officers who shouldn't have a badge or even pastors who should not be overseeing people, and that the position does not make the person, but it's really the other way around. I have also come to recognize that even as the temple took people of various skills to make the place of worship come together, the same is true of our society or worship communities, and that though a person who desires to be an overseer (deacon) desires a good thing, it is not a "better" thing; that we all have important roles to play and should never underestimate how God is at work in a person's life. Even John 4 records the woman living an adulteress life that "many of the Samaritans believed in Him (Jesus) because of the word of the woman who testified". Funny to think she played a more significant role in that city for God than Jesus' own disciples.
Only God really knows what makes a person tic right, and we need to be careful not to make wrong conclusions with our limited information, we also need to be careful not to give more respect to one person over another because of their status, vocation or title and remember Jesus' words: "for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great." So as all these changes are taking place, Corinne and I are accepting the place where Samuel and Jordan are, and are proud of them and their achievements, but contrary to what we thought would happen when they grew up and left home, we are praying for them more, not less. Which I guess if you really think about it, is a better thing.