Nothing But Fancy

In college one learns though gen. ed classes and GPA, that it is not as important to learn a subject as it is to know the subject better than everyone else in your class. One can have no clue what they are doing as long as everyone else is just as lost. It’s more about jumping through the professors hoops, than it is about learning a subject.

In the real world, there are way to many students to be the best. Someone will always be better than me and someone will always be worse. Therefore my only competition is myself. Perfection has become my competitor… and nothing I create will ever be good enough.

If that’s not discouraging enough, there is a power that controls the real world and everyone’s way of life. Despite our talent or our depth of understanding we are not in control. People we do not know make decisions that control us. It is all very overwhelming.

Two ideas learned in the “real world”: perfection and control — both unattainable.

Jurgen Moltmann has this idea: “the power of the powerless.” It’s where I recognize my own vulnerability and own the fact that I lack in regards to perfection and I am defenseless in regards to control. Mysteriously, when I admit this… there is no power over me because I have chosen to have none.

The idea didn’t originate with Moltman… it originates with God… Jesus did not say a word at his trial. He hung helpless on a cross… he owned vulnerability and weakness.

So when I think about this big, real world and all the ways that I try be better than everyone else, exemplify perfection, and possess control, I think about God who continues to wait for me to learn that, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10)

Thoughts inspired by: Richard Foster, The Challange of a Disciplined Life, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1985), p. 204-05.