Beyond Complacency

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push us into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.

Sir Francis Drake, 1557, before departing from Portsmouth, England, to circumnavigate the globe.

This poem made me think. About a lot of things. But mostly about being here at Moody.

Moody is what I’ve been working towards for the past two years. For much longer, really, when you consider that in public school they start pushing college-readiness when you’re quite young. I carefully chose classes and activities, pushed myself to get the GPA and the SAT scores, took Advanced Placement tests, joined National Honor Society, kept track of service projects, and read classic literature.

And now, here I am. I am in college, the college of my choice. What now? Do I just breathe a sigh of relief and become complacent, my goals achieved and nothing more to work for?

I need a new goal, a new thirst, a new drive. It doesn’t have to be something related to my own success. In fact, it probably shouldn’t be. Instead, while I’m here at Moody I need to remember that my future ministry (whatever it will be) is as worth preparing for while I’m here as university was while I was in high school.

I think I’ll print out this poem, and hang it somewhere I’ll see it often.