Jacob's Ladder and Ours

Many people thought I would do one of two things after 2 years as the youth pastor of a small PCA church and almost 5 years as the youth and family pastor of a mid-sized PCA church. The first thing many assumed that I would do is be a solo or senior pastor of a small PCA church. If I didn't do that, then they assumed I would go on to be the youth and family pastor of a very large PCA church.

So, what am I doing? I am going to be the Pastor to Children and Youth at a small PCA church. When people find that out, the first question that have is, "How bad did you mess up that you have to start all over again?" My answer is I didn't mess up. I had both large and mega churches consider me for assistant roles. One seemed very eager to press forward and I had to ultimately tell them I wasn't interested. At this point the questions get more urgent and pressing: Why would you give up the security and platform of a much larger position? Aren't you making a lateral move? Aren't you are taking a demotion? Don't you know that you are going the wrong way on the ladder? You're supposed to be going up and you are taking a step down!

Eventually it all boils down to the proverbial ladder. You know the ladder I'm talking about, the success ladder. There is only one direction on the ladder of success, up. If you go the other way, then you are incompetent and unsuccessful. This is the same ladder that creates the Peter Principle. If you aren't familiar with the Peter Principle it goes basically like this: a competent person is often promoted to a level at which they are ultimately incompetent. So if you are good at what you do you will be promoted until you are at a point where you aren't good at what you do. At this point you plateau. Sounds like fun doesn't it? It has happened to many people I know who have received that all-important promotion only to find that the joy that they had in their previous work is gone. Now they are faced with the dull task of managing people who are doing what they themselves would really love to be doing.

Another thing that this ladder brings us is the designation of "overqualification". Perhaps you've been told that you are "overqualified". You know too much. You've done too much. You couldn't possibly be happy doing this job. A corporation assumes that if they give you a job that perfectly fits your abilities and skill set that you will get bored and quit. Or perhaps they are wrong. Perhaps you will be fulfilled to the point that you begin to work for something greater than a paycheck. Perhaps your job actually becomes your calling. Maybe you find what God created work to be?

Well, there is another kind of ladder. As Jacob slept in Bethel he had a dream of a ladder and he saw the angels ascending and descending on this ladder. Jesus would later identify Himself with that ladder by saying, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (John 1:51) When it comes to ladders, He is the ladder we must seek. He tells us things that, according to the "Success Ladder" people, are absurd: Lose your life and you will gain it. Give all you have to the poor and follow me. If your enemy strikes you on the cheek offer him the other. Pray for those who persecute you. These are the principles that we should hold dear.

God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Sometimes He desires to move us places we wouldn't normally go. Someitmes His leading doesn't make much sense to us or the people around us. That's where I am these days: I know it is God's leading, but from the world's perspective it doesn't make much sense. I'm learning to live that moment by moment kind of faith and to be honest, I still have quite a lot to learn.

So bottom line: Do I mean that we should seek to be demoted? No, not at all. Ionly mean to say that "success" for a believer is described best by following after their Lord. Whether that means going up the ladder or down the ladder, if it is following after Christ, then that is success. May we all seek Jacob's' ladder for our lives.