Downward Mobility

Ever since I first started reading Henri Nouwen when I was in college, I have been haunted by his idea of "downward mobility."  My daily email from the Henri Nouwen Society today was another timely reminder.

The society in which we live suggests in countless ways that the way to go is up. Making it to the top, entering the limelight, breaking the record - that's what draws attention, gets us on the front page of the newspaper, and offers us the rewards of money and fame.

The way of Jesus is radically different. It is the way not of upward mobility but of downward mobility. It is going to the bottom, staying behind the sets, and choosing the last place! Why is the way of Jesus worth choosing? Because it is the way to the Kingdom, the way Jesus took, and the way that brings everlasting life. 


Just minutes before I opened this email I was reading through a stack of newspapers that my mom had set out for me to see.  Each paper featured a different friend from high school. One was a wedding announcement, but the others highlighted the recent accomplishments of successful friends in their respective occupational fields.  After reading those articles, my sinful nature began to scream lies at me that my worth and value were only as good as my worldly success. I began to ask myself the questions, "What do I need to do to get my name in the paper? How can I become famous?  What does 'success' really look like? Do I need the approval of humanity?"


It's a real tension, one that I've faced head on over the last few weeks of unemployment.  I so badly desire the approval of others. I want to make my parents proud and prove to any skeptics that I can do anything I put my mind to.  As a man, one of my deepest, and seemingly innate desires is to be respected. The world offers respect to those with $, power, and influence.  These are all strong temptations I'm facing as we navigate where God is calling us next, but do these temptations really offer what they promise?


As much as I want respect and success, even more that that, I want to forsake the ways of the world for the way of Jesus. I want to have the faith to believe deep within my core that the last shall be first, and the least shall be the greatest.  I want to have the courage to live simply and to fight the lures of the world.  


If you read our blog, odds are that you are someone who loves and cares about us. Thank you for that! Would you love us right now by praying for us? Would you pray that God would give us clarity as to what He is calling us to next?  Pray too that He would give us faith to resist jobs that look attractive and comfortable from a worldly perspective, and the courage to climb down the ladder of success into the way of Jesus.