I consider myself to be one of the fortunate few I've spoken with whose parents didn't have unreasonable, inflated expectations of me. Never did I note anyone implying that I should be a doctor or a lawyer or anyone other job considered to be high-paying or extra respectable. I didn't hear that I had to be a teacher like my parents, or a musician because my grandmother and mother taught music. To be honest, I felt quite a bit of freedom to be whoever I would discover I needed to be.
Of course I feel concern about the choices my children will make in life. The job situation is not what it once was. Employment opportunities change seemingly by the minute. I'm sure that by the time they are striking out on their own, things will look much different than they do today. Who knows what will even be respectable by then? Or high-income? Or what will even put food on the table?
James and John were two of Jesus' disciples whose mother had some pretty high ambitions for her children. For them to be disciples at all would have led her to believe that one day they could be rabbis as well, although it's appropriate that no other person in the Bible would carry that title after Jesus left--Jesus being the ultimate rabbi, a standard no human has any right to after He did it so perfectly. They had left all to follow Jesus, so it's not unreasonable for a mother to desire greatness for her children's future prosperity and prestige. Honestly, I don't look at her and think badly of her. Was she ignorant of the nature of God's Kingdom? Yes. Did she understand what kind of earthly future awaited those that followed Jesus? No, obviously. Based on what she knew, was she unreasonable? I'm not sure I can say that.
I leads me to wonder how much of Jesus' Kingdom I understand. I don't like suffering. I don't like, in my nature, to sacrifice too much. I don't like to feel ostracized. I don't like conflict.
Yeah, I'll admit it. I don't always like to carry the cross. I love the idea of it. It want to follow Jesus. And I even want to love that part of it that might not feel pleasant in the moment.
In the moment, as I accept Christ, I'm a member of His Kingdom. On this side of eternity, there's not a lot of real prestige that comes with it. Even within the church, you can follow Jesus to the very best of your ability, and someone will find fault with you and call you unworthy of something (ministry leadership, membership, etc.). But that's the cost of serving.
And I have to remember that word that is so important: serving. At the end of the day, it has to be about people. "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). If I suffer for serving people, I may not like it in the moment, but so be it. If I am recognized for serving people, granting that I don't seek the recognition, so be it. Whatever may fall, if I'm truly following Jesus, mistreatment or praise won't be something I get wrapped up in.
I can accept being the closest to Jesus if that's what He wills. I can accept being mistreated for serving people as He did. I think that's what's really the gist of being a Kingdom citizen. It's about Jesus. Not me.
I just want to be that person described like this: "The one who stands nearest to Christ will be he who on earth has drunk most deeply of the spirit of His self-sacrificing love,--love that 'vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, ... seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil' (1 Corinthians 13:4, 5),--love that moves the disciple, as it moved our Lord, to give all, to live and labor and sacrifice, even unto death, for the saving of humanity."(The Desire of Ages, Ellen G. White, page 549)
Jesus. All.
(Based on Matthew 20:20-28. If you'd like to study this further for yourself, check out http://carrollwoodchurch.com/2013/06/today-with-jesus-june-26-2013.html)
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