Being a Professional but remembering the Joy of being an Amateur

In one of my classes this week we talked about the dangers and pitfalls one faces when becoming an ordained minister. One of the big ones has to do with how much training it takes to become a minister, we call that training seminary. And in our training we spend three years thinking critically about everything; theology, the Bible, the church, God, Jesus, etc, etc... And with this critical thinking we begin to objectify everything. I know I have fallen into this objectifying of everything and being overly critical about everything, especially the church. And we justify this objectification, or at least I do, by saying we are reading, studying, hearing lectures from scholars, and spending the time in deep critical thought. It is that time that I use to justify my objectification. But this I am finding is a dangerous road to travel down. It is not an authentic lifestyle, it is not the way the one we are called to follow lived.

I have been told one of the best things about becoming ordained is instant creditable. And as one who has been discredited for looking young while working for a church, having that instant creditability was something I was looking for. This creditability comes from the time in seminary. And sometimes this creditability leads us down the road mentioned above, it is an excuse to hide behind, an excuse to objectify the life of faith, a way to reduce faith into something simple and understandable. It hinders us from being who God created us to be.

The idea of being a professional athlete comes to mind for me. A professional athlete is someone who gets paid to do something they love as a job. It is more than what they do, it becomes who they are. I remember as a child that I wanted to be a professional soccer player in Europe. I wanted to spend my days going to training sessions, playing in games, working out in efforts to get just that much better, all because I loved the beautiful game. I wanted my identity to be wrapped around what I did. Of course my life went in a different direction. Don't get me wrong I still love the game, I love it so much that I spend my spare time coaching young players who have similar dreams. But it is that love, the love of the game that drives me now. As I move to being an Ordained Minister I can remember the love that brought me to following God's call on my life, and out of that love remember to walk into my faith, and live authentically not objectively.