This morning my wife and I had a far stretching conversation. It grew out of ordinary morning habit - light a few candles, read from the Bible alongside a brief devotional. Over time, now as senior citizens and as members of a church which emphasizes community of believers more so than preaching, it is obvious to us that this habit is a good one, not to uphold some long held tradition, but to receive inspiration and instruction for each day, not only Sunday mornings. Vital.
Vital, especially
if you are tuned in. Ready! Set! And then we read about rubix cubes! 😏 Yup, that was it, kind of! The devotional habit promptly got into “what
might be biblical or inspirational about rubix cubes?” At first kind of blank,
and then mysteriously interesting for us. The writer’s brief review of the
cube’s history at the hands of one Arno Rubik, a reclusive professor of
architecture (yes!) and the long trek of finding right materials and then the eventual
challenge to solve the very device he had created. Interesting! Conclusion? There
is need for our Creator God to ‘lean into’ the many challenges we face today. Right.
Then just a
bit of tuning in; given this overtly simple (simplistic?) conclusion we began
thinking about challenges we have before us, relational and spiritual hunger
not only in family, in neighborhood and also our church. Then how about the age
factor? There’s quite an age range we think and talk about every day (yes, old
people have the luxury now to think about many things). Now in midst of
devotions, Erik Erikson comes up, a psychologist whom I read once upon a long time
ago, [i]
and more recently Richard Rohr. [ii]
It became a conversation about God not only leaning in, but present in all
things, all life stages, not only hard challenges, but very subtle
possibilities of meaninglessness. We talked about our story, my own burnout at
a point of my life when ‘successful preachers’ might be hitting the speakers’
circuits and modeling the very best of what I had been preaching about. I was a
pastor with a success label - top of the career you might say – and I had
only a wish to die. My recovery began when I admitted first to myself and then
to some trustworthy people around me that my spiritual thirst was deeper than
career success. I admitted a longing for the open road, recognized the wonderful
gift of a Class 1 truckers license ever present in my back pocket during those
years of pastoring.
It was
indeed the open road which began to reveal unexpected benefits, like the sheer
joy of getting to know my youngest two, whom I had had no time for during their
high school years, and now they were college students in Winnipeg. I got to see
them often on my way through that important hub for international trucking. What
a joy to hear them tell stories about friends or studies or whatever.
Erick Erickson’s psychosocial approach identifies eight stages of the life-cycle. At that time I was probably in his Stage 7 (Middle adulthood; generativity versus stagnation). This shows up in immediate challenges like parenting, says Erickson. I interpreted that as permission for the very thing now happening - a need to be authentic, regardless of the job. Rohr, from his priestly vantage, focuses more on the adulthood stages. Life is more than a career path.
Especially
meaningful to us, was both authors’ assertion
that the first half of life includes getting established and known for
something; the second half involves filling that identity with meaning,
spiritual richness, often after experience of necessary failures or suffering, transforming
down into a more authentic self. Although the devotional made scant reference
to the scripture of the day, Psalm 80 made good contribution to our
conversation, e.g. Restore us, O God; let your
face shine, that we may be saved. O Lord God of
hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s
prayers? (:3-4).
We had here perfect reference to what might be personalized middle
adulthood issues. Most middle adult devotional writers, or preachers, or
business executives, are now the Generation X. They are the ones born to the
baby boomers. Us BB’s are the good lifers. We have suffered no wars
and most of us hit hard on making a good living. Now as senior citizens we
live with some consequence. Our children, having noted our busy-ness during
their growing up, are a product of this value system. Many of them have hi-tech knowledge in matching career paths, at least two incomes, several cars or SUV's, vacation trips, etc. etc. These are feel good qualities for us good lifers, endlessly what gets bragged about in coffee klatches. We try not to talk
about our children's middle adulthood issues possibly soon encroaching on their journeys.
Today’s Gen Xers are in two worlds – values picked up from us
good-lifers and a skillset to accomplish all things! The digital
age is their language, and it may show up as a rubix cube demonstration. It also shows up in
their faces, their memos, their business plans, their conversations and of course social media! They
are today's workforce, today's teachers.
X indicates any of many things. Our children, the professionals and/or business owners we believe they are, live with all those opportunities and possibilities of pitfalls before them. X is in most mathematical formulas (Hmm, our oldest son is a math teacher).
Finally, in consideration of all this ... everything,
X may also be a challenge for those among them who have claimed a faith and seeking to live
and express it in a believable way in today’s needy and broken world. Big challenge indeed. We may soon be watching that action from the vantage of the 'cloud of witnesses' up there (Hebrews 12:1).
Lots of
conversation this morning. And then we prayed.
[i]
Erik H Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle (Scranton, PA: W.W. Norton
Publishing, 1994).
[ii] Richard
Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life (San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011).
