Jacob Learns Maturity

Throughout the Road to Character sermon series, we’ve been challenged to examine our lives and our dominant cultural paradigms.  Adam 1 models of success in our country certainly help us to accomplish things in life and develop ways of caring for ourselves, our families, and our world, but while career virtues certainly have their place and merit, if we allow the values that lead to business and financial success to dominate our lives, we may find ourselves existing in ways that are a detriment to our Adam 2 natures.  

In reorienting ourselves to focus on our Adam 2 natures, perhaps we will not only develop the kinds of traits that leave lasting positive impressions on the world and the lives we touch, but maybe even the cultures of our workplaces or the ways that we engage social media.  After all, the Road to Character is not to be walked alone.  Much of our personal examination may be solitary, but character is often best built among community-- with the support of others who commit themselves to similar paths and with ears that hear the voices around us so we can learn to respond to the needs of the world.  We can also rely on Spirit to uphold and guide us on our journeys.  

The goal of our work together, of the path that we walk, is to continually become better people than we were… better than we were 10 years ago, better than we were 3 months ago, better than we were yesterday.  David Brooks offered many examples of great lives, but ultimately the standard we must hold ourselves against is our own.  Am I kinder than I was last year?  Am I less selfish?  Am I better at hearing and responding to the needs of the world?  While I hope that the arc of my life is one of continuous improvement, part of being honest with myself is knowing that it won’t always be, which is another reason I believe community is so important.  It is support from loving community which can make our hardships much easier to survive-- and which can help us turn them into blessing.  When we stumble, our community can help us back up again.

The last section of the last chapter of The Road to Character is entitled “Stumblers.”  As Brooks closes his book, he offers that, “The good news of this book is that it is okay to be flawed, since everyone is… we are all stumblers, and the beauty and meaning of life are in the stumbling-- in recognizing the stumbling and trying to become more graceful as the years go by.”  We pursue progress, not perfection.  We seek maturity, knowing that sometimes getting there will involve wrestling with ourselves and with God.  We seek a beautiful life, knowing that beauty comes not from quick fixes or expensive shoes, but from big and small moments over time that build our character and our sense of peace and harmony with the world.  We must help create those moments as much as savor them.