Specialize in Generality

I was talking with my wife and I came to a conclusion about something: we have become too specialized.

I work in church and have for my entire adult life, and without fail one of the major problems in any congregation I've been in is the phenomenon that 20% of the people do %80 of the work. The few lay members who 'get it' dedicate themselves and are pulled in so many different ministries that they quickly become burnt out from overwork.

Set that nugget aside and take a moment to think about our current political climate. Everyone was ecstatic about Obama, right? We were so excited about change and hope and fixing everything and we voted for him. He won handily and then... what?

We're still in trouble. We're still going down the tubes and we're still waiting for everything to be fixed. Maybe we should have elected the other guy?

I don't think so. If you look at Obama's campaign speeches, he always used "we" language, not "I". We have a lot of work to do. Our challenges are great. He still talks that way. He's not afraid to take the lead and be responsible, but the thought that one person (even the President) can change an entire nation in the span of 3 months is absurd.

Here's the real issue. %80 of the people sit on their thumbs and wait. They sit back calling fouls and never play the game. It happens in churches, but its happening everywhere. People recognize the problem and want change, but they want someone else to do it for them.

So, is it laziness that causes this? Perhaps, but I think it may be a little less indicting. I think it has to do with the way our society is structured. We're too specialized. 100 years ago, if you needed clothes altered, you did it yourself. Someone else could do it better, for certain, but you could do it yourself and be done with it. People knew a little bit in a wide manner of areas.

Things have changed. If something goes wrong in my house, I have to call someone. If you want a job, you have to educate yourself in that particular field. Children are even specializing in one sport rather than playing many. If little Jimmy focuses just on football, then he'll be a much better football player and hopefully get scholarships so he can go to law school and specialize in digital white collar criminal law. Whereas if he plays baseball, football, and soccer, he'll never be good enough to get scholarships in all of them.

We're waiting around for the particular person whose job it is to do whatever incredibly specific task we have before us. So maybe the answer is to stop specializing. Don't try to learn everything about one specific field. Learn a little from a wide variety.

Maybe then we would have people who solved their own problems because they understand that I, me, am the master of my world. If something in my world goes wrong, I will take it upon myself to fix it.

Everything doesn't happen for a reason

Consider this: maybe God doesn't control everything. That would mean that not "everything happens for a reason." Like half of the computer literate population, I poke around facebook and under half of my friend's quotes is that phrase. "Everything happens for a reason."

I reject that.

I refuse to think that God makes thousands of children go hungry everyday. I deny that people groups warring with one another for decades to centuries in Ireland, Africa, and the Middle East has some semblance of a good outcome. There is no purpose behind thousands of young girls being forced into prostitution. No purpose could be good enough to warrant these.

Instead, consider this: perhaps God tries to make the best out of our mess.

A good mother once was cooking with her children. She loved them very much and instead of forcing them to follow a recipe wanted them to experience the joy of preparing a meal. She gave them her box of recipes and gave them free reign of the kitchen. The children decided to ignore her box and attempt their own recipe.

The mother knew within five minutes that the meal they were putting together would not be pleasant. The children had not chosen ingredients that would compliment one another. After an hour, the children began to see that things weren't turning out the way they had foreseen.

The mother loved her children. She did not want them to fail and so instead of throwing out their mess and starting over from one of her recipes, she took what they had already made and helped them create something edible out of it. Though the meal would have been much better if the children had chosen to follow her recipe, it was still good and the children were grateful for a mother who made something great out of their mess.

We make bad decisions and I am convinced that God grieves when we do. But I believe God is like this loving mother, who cares enough about us to make our own choices and tries to make the best out of what we give her.