Head Against Into Wall Syndrome

The other day I caught a radio preaching offering a familiar diatribe against those who have placed career and success above family and faith. It came with the typical call for people to choose work that matters and lives that have meaning--significance rather than success. Aside from the obligatory stint in fast food and a couple of other jobs I had in route to ministry, I have always sought "significance" in my career choice--ministry and teaching. As I listened to this preacher extolling the virtues of the search-for-significance based life choices, I wondered if he wasn't selling a bill of goods that wouldn't deliver on the promises.

First, let's not sell the pursuit of wealth short. I realize being in ministry, I'm not supposed to make making money my main priority. It's a hypocritical standard we have in church. Generally people celebrate the fact that their work is valued enough to receive substantial pay for their work. Not in ministry. In ministry, if you expect a large salary, you soil the sanctity of ministry. Understand, by ministry standards, I am well-paid. Even then, the living made is a tenuous way to make a living. People who just work to make money and succeed at making a lot of it, have fewer anxieties, more freedom and greater breadth of experiences. Money can't by you happiness? OK, but the lack of money doesn't supply joy either.

Second, there's no guarantee that if you seek significance, you will find it. There are plenty of days when I have no sense that what I am doing matters to God, to God's Church or to the world. There are those who would say that that is only an indication that I am not seeking God's guidance on a daily basis--probably so. Nonetheless, things have to get done. And some of those things are tedious, spirit-draining and mindless. Essential but not significant.

Finally, the search of significance requires competence. Just as not everyone has the talent, luck and wisdom to make money so too not everyone has the talent, luck and wisdom to find meaning in what they do.