Lately, I have been trying to wrap my head and heart around Henri Nouwen's concept of downward mobility. He writes, "Our lives in this technological and highly competitive society are characterized by a pervasive drive for upward mobility. It is difficult for us to even imagine ourselves outside of this upwardly mobile lifestyle. Our whole way of living is structured around climbing the ladder of success and making it to the top... The story of salvation stands radically over and against the philosphy of upward mobility. The great paradox which Scripture reveals to us is that real and total freedom is only found through downward mobility. The Word of God came down to us and lived among us as a slave. The divine way is indeed the downward way... The disciple is the one who follows Jesus on his downward path and thus enters with him into new life. The gospel radically subverts the presuppositions of our upwardly mobile society. It is a jarring and unsettling challenge."
Because I was raised in an upwardly mobile society, it seems "normal" to me to be as successful as possible. I have a difficult time living out a downardly mobile lifestyle. For instance, I desired to move to Homewood probably a year before we actually made the move. I wrestled with it for a long time. There were probably several factors playing into that decision for us as a family, but I can attribute almost all of them to the lifestyle demands of upward mobility. For a long time, almost everything in my conscience was screaming, "No, you fool! You're going in the wrong direction! Get back in line! You're supposed to live in a nice, safe neighborhood with great schools... the kind of place where you can walk at night and feel safe. You need more money, a better paying job, a bigger house, and a nicer car." It sounds silly to me to generalize it like that, but it really was like that. I felt like the full weight of the American marketing machine was against me!
So what finally pushed me over the edge? God. Simply, God. Or as Nouwen said it, "The gospel radically subverts the presuppositions of our upwardly mobile society." Following God has "radically subverted" my comfortable lifestyle. I cannot say that I am a follower of Christ and then live out a lifestyle that aligns comfortably with the world. I still struggle with this on a daily basis, and I know the Western church is absolutely paralyzed by this issue at the moment. Often one cannot tell the difference between a Christian and a nonbeliever, or a church and a country club. Imagine what the body of Christ would be like in America if we truly embraced the radical calling of downward mobility that was modelled by our Saviour?
3 comments:
This is great stuff Bryan. Thanks for sharing - I am going to forward it on to my small group.
My small group is hearing it as well. I made copies! I'm praying they are ruined for the ordinary!
Bryan
You've hit the nail on the head! But it also raises some pardoxical questions, doesn't it? For instance, as we minister to the poor, we want to teach and empower them to rise up out of poverty. But isn't that in a sense wanting to make them upwardly mobile? We want to help them get better jobs, better neighborhoods, better education - but isn't that in a sense trying to make them middle class?
Look at it this way: if you walk down the street and you find someone lying in the gutter, which is better - to lie down with him and keep him company, or to pick him up, dust him off, and help him to move along?
So my point is this: there's no shame in being upwardly mobile, as long as it isn't self serving and done to satisfy a greedy spirit; what is important is that we regularly, frequently, reach back down the ladder and use what we've gained to help others less fortunate.
Make sense?
John V
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