With the school year about to get under way, I’ve been involved in several staff Professional Learning days. I always enjoy leading days like this – especially towards the start of the year when people are fresh and motivated for what lies ahead. One of the topics we looked at has stuck with me. It can be summed up by the comment, “It’s not about position, but trajectory.” In other words, it is not where you are right now that really matters, but where you are likely to be if you carry along on your present pathway. While I covered some of this terrain in a post Because Lost Direction is Worse than Lost Time, I thought it worth re-exploring.
One of my common sayings is “Facts are friends.” And they are. However facts usually help us to locate our current situation. They might tell us about the state of our health, or finances, or relationships, or of our position in the workplace hierarchy. They give a snapshot of now. What they don’t usually provide is the narrative of why we are here, or of where we are going. And those narratives are important. For example, you might be in good health now, but be increasingly opting for a couch potato lifestyle. While now is fine, play it forward, and it is unlikely to be. Or to the comment from the professional learning day – it’s not about position, but trajectory.
Life is made up of many things, but most of them fit within a few major blocks. Important ones include:
My relationship with God. Almost everything else flows from this, for Prov 9:10 is deeply perceptive. The fear (or knowledge/ awareness/awe/love) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If this is the start of wisdom, it’s right to ask what trajectory my friendship with God is following. It’s not enough that I have some God stories from 10 or 20 years ago. What’s happening in this space now? Is this a deepening and ever more responsive relationship?
My relationship with my family – whatever version family takes for you. Again, it’s about trajectory. Saying, “It’s fine. No major fights in the last few weeks” probably doesn’t hack it. How am I investing in family now? Who needs a little more of my time, consideration and care? It might be ok now – but if I’m not pro active, that could change suddenly.
My relationship with my body – my physical fitness and well being. Again, you might have just had a perfect set of blood tests. Your weight, cholesterol and blood pressure might be in the magic zone. But you know that the only reason for that is a fortunate set of genes, and that at some point they won’t be enough. What new habits might you need to develop to have not simply a decent lifespan but also a satisfying healthspan?
I could keep going through other zones – our social life, our career, our finances, our intellectual development… but I imagine you’ve already grasped the message. Sometimes what has brought us to our present point will not be enough to keep us into the future. We might need to be open to new possibilities and a fresh stretch in unexplored pastures. It’s about trajectory, and where it is all going.
Many of my readers enjoy some of the theological observations I sometimes add to otherwise very “worldly” matters. How about this. When thinking about trajectory, why not align it with what theologian Stan Grenz (on whom I wrote my PhD thesis) calls “eschatological orientation”. The idea isn’t as complex as it may sound. Grenz invites us to imagine the ultimate purposes of God and to work backwards from them. What matters is not so much exactly what we are doing now, as it is to be confident that we are moving in the same direction as God – put differently, that we are eschatologically aligned. In setting todays path, we are guided by playing it backwards from God’s ultimate purposes. For example, Paul in Gal 3:28 affirms that “in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.” It is a truly breathtaking announcement of what will ultimately be. Yet this same Paul can write about how masters should treat their slaves. If in Christ Jesus there is not slave nor free, how can Paul avoid reprimanding slave owners for having slaves and for being part of this abusive system? If asked I imagine Paul would have said that the guidelines on master slave relationships are ones which limit the abuse present in those relationships, even while he reminds us that the day will come when slavery will be no more. In other words he invites us to step onto a trajectory that moves away from slavery – just as he invites us to step onto a trajectory that moves away from national obsession (neither Jew not Greek) or gender divides (neither male nor female) – for in Christ Jesus, these are of little significance.
Back to our more ordinary world of weight management, enough time with the kids, and stretching our minds.
Why not pause for a while and play your current life practices forward. Trajectory matters. And if you aren’t happy with the current trajectory, what needs to happen to get you to embrace some necessary changes. Without robbing yourself of the joy and pleasure of now, play it forward, and ask what you can do now that your 10 years older self will thank you for. And what can you do now to ensure you will one day hear Jesus saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant”(Matt 25:21)?
Nice chatting…
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Comment *Lovely and thought-provoking post, Brian. I find it easy to succumb to The temptation to rest on the laurels of past “successes” as proof of today’s trajectory – but in fact, closer scrutiny is required. And to complement that, the perennial question of the very young (“Are we there yet?”) should also be the question of us more mature folk. The answer for us is the same as for the kids: “No!”
Thanks Adele. Great to hear from you. Definitely not there yet, though it certainly helps to be confident you are on the right journey!